AsaaseGhanaHeadlineHealthNews

Nsiah Asare: 1.3 million Moderna COVID-19 vaccines arrive next week

The presidential advisor on health says Ghana has “improved considerably on our cold chain system” and is ready to receive ultra-cold vaccines

Ghana will receive its first batch of Moderna vaccines next week as it targets a threshold of 20 million to achieve herd immunity by October in the fight against COVID-19.

Anthony Nsiah Asare, the presidential advisor on health, said roughly 1.2 million Moderna vaccines are expected in the country in the first week of September.

He also stressed that the districts have the capacity to store the doses, following improvements to the national cold chain system.

“I’m happy to inform you that for the first time we’re getting the slightly ultra-cold vaccines. We’re getting Moderna – 1.299 million vaccines. We’ve improved considerably on our cold chain system,” Dr Asare told the host of Town Hall Talk, Kofi Abotsi. “… we’ll also be getting Pfizer very soon – another 1.29 million vaccines.”

He added: “Every district in this country has an ultra-cold system in place. We have one cold-chain van and we’ll be getting ten more to supply the vaccines.

”Our Zipline distribution centres also have an ultra-cold chain system to also distribute the vaccines. I’m sure by next week we’ll receive the Moderna.”

AstraZeneca top-up from Monday

Dr Asare expressed optimism that Ghana is on course to achieve its 20 million herd immunity target by the end of 2021 because Ghanaians should “be expecting a lot of vaccines from now till the end of the year”.

“The good news is that we now have 250,000 AstraZeneca in town and I understand that from 30 August we’ll be deploying them for those who got vaccinated from 10 March.

“Another [piece of] good news is that we’ll be getting another 250,000 AstraZeneca to complete vaccinating the 450,000 who had the first dose.

“Just this afternoon I had an email from the COVAX system that we’re also going to get some 770,000 [additional] AstraZeneca,” he said.

Rising cases

Explaining why Ghana is recording high increases in numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, Dr Asare said: “There are lot of vulnerable people in the system and only a few people have vaccinated. Most of the people who are losing their lives have not been vaccinated.

“There is also mask-wearing fatigue, even [among] doctors. Getting used to these protocols is very difficult. Now that we don’t have the herd immunity we have to stick to the protocols.”

Watch the full show here:

Local vaccine production

Meanwhile, the presidential vaccine manufacturing committee in Ghana has said it is targeting production of COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana within the next two years.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo established the committee to spearhead local production of vaccines to tackle the spread of COVID-19.

Addressing a meeting with the press on Friday 27 August 2021, as part of stakeholder consultations towards the production of COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana, Anarfi Asamoah Baah, the co-ordinator of Ghana’s Coronavirus Response Programme who is also a member of the committee, said the target is achievable.

Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
99.5 in Accra, 90.7 in Ho, 98.5 in Kumasi, 99.7 in Tamale, 89.5 in Tarkwa and 106.9 in Walewale
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995

#AsaaseRadio
#TheVoiceofOurLand

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button

Adblock Detected

ALLOW OUR ADS