Director of WACCBIP, Professor Gordon Awandare
The Director of the West African Center for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), Professor Gordon Awandare has posited that it will be impossible for Ghana to achieve herd immunity against the COVID-19 pandemic by December 2021.
According to him, Ghana cannot achieve its 2021 vaccination target, hence making the herd immunity objective impossible.
“It is not possible for Ghana to vaccinate 20 million people within a month. There are no vaccines coming from anywhere. Globals vaccine supply is low and I don’t see how we can vaccinate 20 million people by December 2021,” he shared in an interview with Samuel Ehsun on the Happy Morning Show aired on e.TV Ghana and Happy98.9FM.
The expert on pathology disclosed that Ghana will be lucky to have vaccinated 5 million of its citizenry by the close of 2021. “The earliest Ghana can achieve herd immunity is by 2022. Herd immunity cannot be achieved this year,” he emphasized.
To him, the only way the country can control the spread of the virus is by respecting COVID-19 safety protocols to the latter.
President Akufo-Addo promised to procure 17.6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of June for Ghanaians, with the first doses arriving in March.
“Our aim is to vaccinate the entire population, with an initial target of twenty million people,” the President said.
With Ghana having a population of over 30 million, the 20 million targets were to contribute to the achievement of herd immunity but with a global decline in vaccine supply, Ghana has only managed to vaccinate a few hundred thousand citizens.