The Ghana Statistical Service says it is collaborating with the Ghana Health Service to vaccinate about 85,000 field officials who will be involved in the 2021 Population and Housing Census, before the start of the exercise.

The vaccination exercise is scheduled to take place from the 31^st of May to 8^th of June 2021.

At a press briefing on Sunday, Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kakraba Annim, said the Service is taking all the necessary steps to ensure the safe conduct of the exercise.

“I will mention to all persons in Ghana that we are taking all the necessary steps to ensure that the census adheres to the strict protocols of COVID-19. What are some of the things we are doing? We have already engaged with the Ministry of Health through the Ghana Health Service, and they had an engagement with Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, who is the Presidential Advisor on Health, and a confirmation has been given that all 85,000 officials that we are going to engage from the beginning of 31^st May 2021, will be vaccinated. All our 85,000 supervisors will go through the exercise.”

The 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC), with the slogan, ‘You Count, Get Counted’, will provide the opportunity for the country to gather credible and comprehensive data on the citizenry towards transforming the economy for sustainable development.

The census was originally scheduled for 2020, but will now take place from the 27^th of June 2021.

The GSS is the lead agency for the conduct of the Census and has divided the country into 51,921 enumeration areas to ensure easy collection of geospatial data across the 260 metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies.

This year’s census will be the sixth conducted in Ghana since the post-independence era.

The country conducted a National Census in 1960, 1970, 1984, 2000, and 2010.

Ghana’s population has since moved from 6.7 million in 1960 to 24.6 million in 2010, and currently estimated at 30 million.