Information Minister Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said the government has not lost sight of other issues in the health sector while fighting the COVID-19.
In a tweet after the Health Minister’s press conference on the coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday June 16, he said “Whilst fighting Covid-19, Government has not lost sight of other issues in our health sector such as, the doctor to population ratio, nurse to population ratio and maternal health services, which have all increased.”
He added “Government will keep working to keep all the health pieces together for the well being of Ghanaians.”
Minister of Health Kwaku Agyemang-Manu disclosed that the government is committed to procuring vaccines to protect Ghanaians.
To that end, he said the country has made some bilateral engagements with the African Union Medicines Platform to deliver the first batch of vaccines in August.
He pointed out that even though he is sure to receive vaccines from the African Union supported procurement in August he cannot tell the exact date that the country will receive the vaccines from the facility.
The African Union supported facility has three vaccines placed on its scheme such as AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Johnson & Johnson to procure for the country.
Mr Agyemang-Manu therefore implored Ghanaians to behave themselves well by wearing the masks and keeping with the safety protocols to wait till August to receive the consignment.
“FDA has approved three vaccines now, AstraZeneca and Sputnik were the first two and quite recently, about ten days ago Johnson & Johnson has been added. And let me let the country know that we have placed orders with the African Union Medicine platform and our efforts to engage bilaterally. And we have indications, now that we have approved Johnson & Johnson, that our first batch of AU supported procurement will begin to arrive in this country sometime in August, we are still waiting for the exact date” he said.
He added “And between now and August, it’s not too far, if we behave ourselves well we can wait, we wouldn’t die before these vaccines also arrive, we will have quite a large quantity to spread across by 2022. So government is working so hard to get our people vaccinated. FDA, as we announced earlier has actually achieved regulatory maturity level three, this means that FDA approvals could be accepted in many countries even including the WHO.
“And in the last World Health Assembly, it will be a point of interest to know that the Director General of the WHO actually acknowledged the Ghana FDA. Adverse events after vaccinations, monitoring of vaccines and other technologies is continuing”.
