Public Health Physician and member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Jehu Appiah, has asserted that the lack of planning on the part of the Ghanaian government has led the country to procure four different vaccines to immunize citizens.
According to him, if the country had done proper planning of its vaccine mechanism, two vaccines would have been the most number of vaccines procured.
He expressed on the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun, “A small country and yet we cannot have leadership that will decide on the type of vaccine that we need. We are getting different vaccines and that shows that we have become a country that is not certain of what to do.
If we had planned that properly, by now we would have had one type of vaccine. We know Indians are having difficulty with the AstraZeneca but if we planned very well with the Sputnik V, by now we will only have had Sputnik V and AstraZeneca. Now there is Johnson and Johnson and America’s extras also.”
Nonetheless, Dr. Jehu Appiah shared that it is good news that Ghana has taken delivery of some 177,600 single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccines. “What is coming is a good deal for those who haven’t received because this is a single dose”.
He, however, urged that government intensify the education on the need for citizens to take these vaccines.
Government has procured over 177,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) initiative for the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The vaccines arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on Saturday, August 7.
The deputy minister for Health, Tina Mensah, led the delegation to receive the vaccines.