Programme Manager of the Extended Programme on Immunization (EPI), Dr. Kwame Amponsah-Akiyanu has disclosed that over 700,000 Ghanaians have been vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
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Ghana, after receiving 600,000 vaccines from the COVAX facility also received 50,000 vaccines from the government of India and over 300,000 from South African Telecommunications group, MTN.
“We’ve vaccinated over 700,000 people currently. We deployed the 1st doses in March not long after the COVAX facility gave us our first batch of the vaccine. From there on, we received 50,000 vaccines from the government of India and 150,000 of the vaccines from MTN and they also added an extra 150,000 during the Easter celebration”, he said.
Dr. Amponsah-Akiyanu disclosed that his outfit wanted to keep the 2nd batch received from MTN Africa and use that for the 2nd doses of the vaccine in April but decided otherwise.
“Initially, we wanted to keep the extra number of vaccines received and use that for vaccinating those who took the 1st jab. But we immediately realised that the vaccinates were close to expiration and had to use them and that is why we did. We are likely to finish with the vaccination exercise today”, he shared.
According to him vaccines generally have a short shelf life and last up to an average of 6 months.
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He made this known in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy FM.
The EPI Programme Manager revealed that the vaccines received from MTN are from the stock acquired by South Africa until they halted its rollout after a study showed the AstraZeneca vaccine was ineffective against the country’s new COVID-19 variant.
Most African countries are relying on the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, which aims to immunize 20% of the population by the end of the year.
However, Ghana is looking at other options in getting vaccines for its citizens, including sourcing for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and that of Johnson and Johnson.
By: Joel Sanco