Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, Minister of Health, has appealed to all Ghanaians to patronise the COVID-19 vaccines which will be rolled out upon the receipt of the first shipment on Wednesday.

He said when one refuses to be vaccinated, that person jeopardises his or her life and that of their immediate families and loved ones.

Mr Agyeman Manu was speaking to the media in Accra at the launch of a Risk Communication Campaign against the COVID-19 spread that is being championed by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the Ghana Health Service and the Hope for Future Generation (HFFG), a non-governmental organisation.

He said education on the vaccines were being intensified among the populace to make people understand the need to patronise the vaccines, adding that everybody, including people with disabilities, would have access to the vaccines so all persons would be protected from the virus.

He said President Akufo-Addo would give details of the COVID-19 Vaccines soon for the general populace to be well informed about the programme.

The Minister, therefore, commended GIZ for partnering with Ghana, to manage and control the pandemic with critical programmes, like the risk Communication campaign through the rolling of the messages in English and other languages as well as special messages targeting persons with disabilities.

The GIZ, under its Governance for Inclusive Development Programme (GovID), has teamed up with the GHS to produce educational materials to support the fight against COVID-19.

The materials would be distributed among over 100 districts in all 16 regions of Ghana, as a major function of risk communication and community engagement pillars in creating awareness and enabling behaviour change to curb the COVID-19 spread.

Mr Christoph Retzlaff, German Ambassador, said Germany was aware that the pandemic could be fought through strategic partnership and that was why it continued to be one of the biggest contributors to international organisations such as the World Bank, the IMF, the UN-Agencies or GAVI, which all provided substantial support to Ghana with regards to COVID-19 during the past year.

Germany, he said had also supported and funded COVID-19 mitigation programmes through the provision of ventilators, beds, COVID Units, among others as well as the inclusive risk communication programme, which was also targeting the blind and deaf persons.

Mr Raphael Trerking, Programmes Manager, GovID, said the programme was aimed at contributing to the dissemination of information on COVID-19 among the people, through video and TV messages, as well as social media, to get citizens to be well informed and stick to the safety protocols.