The Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health hopes for every Ghanaian to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, but believes the government is not doing enough to make this happen.
The National Vice-Chair of the coalition, Ninsau Kwesi Darku believes the government of the day is not being proactive in acquiring vaccines for the populace.
Although the coalition wants the vaccination to be swift for the country to achieve herd immunity, it argues, “from the progress of the vaccination exercise, we really don’t have a serious vaccination plan for the population. We only wait for someone to gift us vaccines before vaccinating the people.”
He noted that Ghana as a country only made plans to acquire the Sputnik V vaccine but that was not successful.
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he however expressed joy over Germany giving Ghana some 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.
“We are happy some vaccines are coming for the populace. The new variant around is scary and this is good news. Although the pace of the vaccine is slow and we are not happy about it but if we’re gifted more, we better take it because better late than never.”
He expressed his optimism about Ghana achieving herd immunity if she gets enough vaccines.
“It is possible to vaccinate 60 percent of the population and achieve herd immunity. The rollout is not the problem but the problem is the availability of the vaccine. If we get the vaccine today we can vaccinate and get the herd immunity but we just don’t have the vaccines now.”
Ninsau Kwesi Darku also called on NGOs and CSOs to contribute to public education on COVID-19 prevention.
With COVID-19 vaccinations ongoing worldwide, the global politics on the vaccine has slowed the pace of vaccination, especially in Africa.
Ghana trying to get ahead of the vaccination campaign has tried tp secure facilities to produce vaccines locally but that has failed, and she has had to rely on foreign donors and facilities for vaccines.
The most recent country to provide Ghana with vaccines is Germany. The government will receive 1.5 million vaccines out of the 70 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines granted to Africa by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
