Members of the Volta Region House of Chiefs on Thursday availed themselves, in an exemplary gesture, to be vaccinated against the coronavirus disease.

The regional health directorate was summoned by the House to its meeting for an update on the pandemic situation within the Region and to support the vaccination campaign.

Togbe Tepre Hodo XIV, President of the House, rallied all eligible persons to take the shot, saying "for me, there is nothing mystical and spiritual about the vaccines."

He said the virus had kept the House from meeting for a while and was grateful to the Ghana Health Service for their sacrifices towards economic and social recovery.

Dr Senanu Kwesi Dzokoto, Deputy Regional Director of Health Services, in charge of Public Health called it "a groundbreaking example," which he said, "demonstrates to the whole country the wisdom of the entire leadership of Volta."

He said support from such quarters would greatly benefit the immunization drive, on which the health directorate leaned, to achieve herd immunity against the rise in cases and deaths.

"We have reached an important part of the campaign to be able to vaccinate a million people in the Volta Region and this step is crucial to breaking the hegemony of vaccine intolerance," Dr Dzokoto said, reporting to the House that close to 66,000 had taken the jab in the Region.

The Health Director said over 120,000 doses of vaccines were available and hoped that the cue from the chiefs would help realize the mandate to inoculate 70 per cent of the entire population of the Region.

He said the vaccines were safe and continued to defy negative theories surrounding their usage, with no significant side effects recorded in the Region since the first jabs.

Dr Dzokoto assured that more vaccines were being supplied to the Region and called for continuous education on the inoculation exercise.

Chiefs received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine at a centre set up by health workers within the auditorium of the House.