President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said Government is standing by its commitment to vaccinate twenty million Ghanaians, i.e., the entire adult population, by the end of this year, despite the huge global demand for vaccines by countries, and the surge in infections the world over.
He said So far, one million, two hundred and seventy-one thousand, three hundred and ninety-three (1,271,393) vaccine doses have been administered, with eight hundred and sixty-five thousand, four hundred and twenty-two (865,422) persons having received a single jab, and four hundred and five thousand, nine hundred and seventy-one (405,971) persons have received their full dose of two (2) jabs.
According to Nana Akufo-Addo in his address to the Nation, “We are expecting, through the COVAX facility and the African Union, one million, two hundred and twenty-nine thousand, six hundred and seventy (1,229,670) doses of the Pfizer vaccines from the Government of the United States of America, and two hundred and forty-nine thousand (249,000) AstraZeneca vaccines from the Government of the United Kingdom. Government is also in the process of procuring seventeen million (17 million) single dose per person Johnson & Johnson vaccines, through the African Medicine Supply Platform, in this quarter. ”
“We have, as such, upgraded our national, regional, and district cold chain facilities to widen our access to vaccines like Pfizer and Modena, that require minus seventy degrees Celsius (-70℃) cold chains. These include sixteen (16) ultra-low cold freezers, fifty-eight (58) units of ultra-low freezers, fifty (50) normal vaccine refrigerators, three hundred (300) boxes to be filled with ice packs, three hundred (300) ice packed freezers, ten (10) cold chain vans, and one hundred and twenty (120) temperature monitoring devices. These are in addition to the existing Zipline cold chain distribution service, for which we are grateful. I thank, as well, UPS, the American multi-national shipping, receiving, and supply chain Management Company, and Kosmos Energy, the American oil and Gas Company, for their generous donations towards this development.”
“Fellow Ghanaians, it is important to stress, once again, that all the vaccines to be used in the country have been certified as safe-for-use by our national regulatory agency, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA). There should, therefore, be no hesitancy amongst the population who are yet to be vaccinated. As the oft-cited saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry. The global shortage of vaccines means that we must develop our capacity to produce our vaccines domestically and reduce our dependence on foreign supplies. We must be self-sufficient in this regard in the future, and prepare ourselves better to deal with any such occurrences in the future. To this end, the Committee I established, under the leadership of the world-renowned Ghanaian scientist, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, to investigate Ghana’s potential as a vaccine manufacturing hub, to meet national and regional needs, has presented its preliminary report which, amongst others, recommends the establishment of a National Vaccine Institute to spearhead this development. The government has committed to injecting seed funding of some twenty-five million United States dollars (US$25 million) this year into this whole enterprise. ”
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
