The Central Regional Office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) is to step up public education on the COVID-19 vaccination scheduled for March 2, 2021.

More than 20 million Ghanaians are expected to be vaccinated during the exercise estimated to cost $52million.

The vaccination exercise is in three phases, beginning with health workers, people with known underlying health conditions and security personnel.

In this direction, the Commission organised a COVID-19 vaccination sensitization capacity building workshop for its Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors (MMDD) to help provide the public with the right information.

The directors were tasked to arm themselves with information on the pandemic to adequately sensitize the public on the vaccination exercise.

They must provide truthful and accurate information to counter misinformation and fake news circulating on social media and other platforms.

Mr Nicholas Ofori Boateng, Regional Director of the NCCE, noted that anti-vaccine campaigners had captured the attention of the populace with fake information which needed to be debunked with the right messages.

Participants went through basic information about COVID-19, history and benefits of vaccination, currently approved vaccines for COVID-19 treatment in Ghana and COVID-19 vaccination myths.

They were also educated on the adverse effects of the vaccine, the processes it went through before approval, the roll-out plan and the safeness of the approved vaccines for use in Ghana.

Mr Ofori Boateng advised the MMDDs to collaborate with the Ghana Health Service, Ghana Medical Association, the Assemblies and stakeholders to discharge their duties.

The second phase, he said, would benefit essential service providers, people above 60 years, second cycle and tertiary students, teachers, members of the Executive, Legislature, the Judiciary and the media. He said other members of the population, excluding children under sixteen years and pregnant women, would be vaccinated in the third phase.

Mr Ofori Boateng said the vaccination was a complementary measure to slow down the rate of spread of the virus and did not mean that once people were vaccinated, adherence to the established protocols should seize.

He charged the officers to remind citizens of adherence to the existing safety protocols and restrictions even after vaccination.

He advised the civic educators to demonstrate an understanding of the concerns that would be raised by the public and reasonably address them.