Kwaku Agyeman Manu, Health Minister, discussed the struggle of Ghana in obtaining COVID-19 vaccines.
According to the Minister, the government’s efforts to obtain more vaccinations are being hindered by strong demand worldwide. But considering the difficulty, he told CITI NEWS that Ghana is lobbying for further vaccinations.
“We are having challenges in supplies just like across the globe. There are those who have money invested in the development, and they are keeping on to the stocks.”
“Last week if you heard, Italy blocked consignments that were bound for Australia. Stocks are just not available, but we are working with networks and the president is also helping us with this.”
Read Also: App to be developed to aid COVID-19 vaccine rollout – GHS
Ghana received the first COVID-19 dose of vaccine administered through the global program for vaccine exchange COVAX. The country received 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX facility and later received 50,00 vaccinations donated by the Indian government. The government of Ghana plans to to provide AstraZeneca 2 million vaccines from COVAX by the end of May.
By the end of 2021, COVAX expects to have COVID-19 vaccines at least 2 billion doses to alleviate the procurement issues and maintain fair delivery.
There have been concerns around vaccine hoarding since vaccine production began.
Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, President of the World Health Organization, noted in February that 60% of usable vaccine stocks have been purchased for wealthy countries with just 16% of the world’s population.
To achieve a herd immunity, the Country ultimate objective is to vaccinate 20 million people and has so far vaccinated more than 200,000 people in the first stages of the COVID-19 Vaccination rollout program.
Source: ATLFMNEWSROOM
