Religious leaders have been listed as part of the segmented population to receive the first 600,000 doses of the Coronavirus vaccines received on Wednesday, February 24.

The deployment of the vaccines is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2 in the Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi metropolitan areas. Awutu Senya East and Awutu Senya West in the Central Region as well as Obuasi will also be covered.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Minister-designate for Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the COVID-19 “vaccination will be conducted in phases among segmented populations”.

“The first segment of the population that will receive from the 600,000 doses will be health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary and their related staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers and other personalities in Greater Accra Metro including Awutu Senya West and Awutu Senya East in the Central Region.”

In the early days of the outbreak of the viral disease in Ghana, some religious leaders lived in denial, espousing divine protection.

However, churches have since instituted temporal measures to ensure that the disease does not spread during services.

Social distancing, wearing of masks and hand washing-cum-sanitising are strictly enforced by churches.