The Ghana Health Service(GHS) is expected to begin inoculating persons who are yet to receive the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccines early next week.
The Service on August 18, 2021 took delivery of some 249,000 doses of the vaccines from the UK government to support its vaccination drive.
The Programmes Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunization at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, however says priority will be given to frontline health workers and vulnerable persons who have already taken their first jab.
“We are working towards commencing the vaccination exercising by early next week. We want to first clear the Johnson and Johnson vaccines in the country.
“We have the data on how many are due for the second dose. We will not allow those who have not taken the first dose to take the second. Also, attention will be given to the vulnerable ones first, that’s the frontline health workers will be vaccinated first,” he said.
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca was the first vaccine to arrive in Ghana earlier this year when the country heightened its efforts to beat COVID-19.
Out of the about 800,000 people to have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, nearly half of the number is yet to get the second jab.
Ghana is already vaccinating a section of the population with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which arrived in the country last month under the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Trust initiative.
A total of 177,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered to unvaccinated persons in COVID-19 hotspots in the Greater Accra Region and the Ashanti Region.
Vaccine institute
Currently, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is in Germany to hold discussions with global vaccine manufacturer Pfizer-BioNTech for the establishment of a vaccine institute in Ghana.
The meeting, to be held on the sidelines of the President’s official working visit to the European nation this week, will also consider modalities for the procurement of more of that manufacturer’s vaccine for Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccination programme.
This was disclosed by Mr Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications at the Presidency.
According to him, the discussion with the vaccine manufacturer will form a major component of the President’s visit to Germany.
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