One million, Two Hundred and Seventy One Thousand, Three Hundred and Ninety-Three (1,271,393) doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered so far.
Out of that number, 865, 422 persons have received a single jab, whereas 405, 971 people have received their full dose of two jabs.
This was announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Addressing Ghanaians on the measures put in place to reduce the rising COVID-19 cases in the country in his 26th update, President Akufo-Addo further indicated that the availability of vaccines will ramp up in the course of the third quarter of this year.
The President said, “we are expecting through the COVAX facility, one million Pfizer vaccines from the United States of America, 29,670 Pfizer vaccines from the African Union, and 249,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the United Kingdom.”
He also indicated that government is in the process of procuring 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 in order to widen our access to vaccines like Pfizer and Modena, that require minus seventy degrees Celsius (-70°C) cold chains. These include 16 ultra-low cold freezers, 58 units of ultra- low freezers, 50 normal vaccine refrigerators, 300 boxes to be filled with ice packs, 300 ice packed freezers, 10 cold chain vans, and 120 temperature monitoring devices. I thank, in particular, UPS, the American multi- national shipping, receiving and supply chain management company, for their generous donation towards this development.”
He stressed that all the vaccines to be used in the country have been certified as safe-for-use by the 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 saying goes, it is better to be safe than to be sorry,” he noted.
Ghana’s COVID-19 situation
There has been a surge in Ghana’s COVID-19 case count in the month of July, with more than 2,500 new cases recorded.
This has sparked concerns about a looming third wave of COVID-19 in Ghana.
The Ashanti and Bono regional directorates of the Ghana Health Service have expressed worry about the astronomical increase in cases in their regions.
The government has urged the public to strictly comply with the COVID-19 preventive protocols and indicated that it is working to secure more vaccines to vaccinate all citizens.
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA), has also expressed concern about the current trend of positive COVID-19 cases in the country.
The Association says it fears that the country’s health system will not be able to accommodate the rising cases should the trend continue.
