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The Ghanaian pharmacist in the UK has said that Ghana must be realistic in its attempt to source Covid-19 vaccines by March 2021 as the reality on the ground does not support optimism.
According to Kwame Sarpong Asiedu, although Ghana may receive the vaccine next year, it may only be possible by June 2021.
“I know we will get the vaccines, but I’m realistic and I think we probably won’t get anything until the second quarter of 2021,” he told Newsfile host Samson Lardy Anyenini on Saturday.
President Akufo-Addo has been very optimistic that Ghana will access the covid-19 vaccine by March 2021.
But, the member of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) explained that the manufacturers of the vaccines have imposed some restrictions on the distribution of the vaccine, hence the impossibility.
“The caveat is that you can only get up to 20 percent of your population and for your vulnerable people.
“The other caveat (the vaccine) is that it is not activated until the end of the first quarter of 2021.”
Furthermore, he noted that the UK has a prioritized list of elderly and vulnerable people for vaccination, and he doubts that Ghana can push for it.
“In the UK, there is an up-to-date record of step-by-step vaccination protocols starting with people over 80 years old, then 70 years old and inertial residential homes, then vulnerable population 65 years old …”
Mr. Asiedu noted that Covex’s own agreement has established that priority should be given to health professionals and vulnerable populations at risk.
“I wonder, even at this point, if we have identified our vulnerable population in Ghana.”
“So when I heard the president speak and I heard others say that we will start receiving the vaccine in March, I shudder a little because I have been following the Covex conversation,” he revealed.
The pharmacist also noted that some of the vaccines “had to be stored on dry ice and in liquefied nitrogen due to minus 70 degrees …” hence the need for proper preparation before receiving them.
“So yes, we will get vaccines, but it will be intriguing to see how the dynamics of the vaccine would work and then, even with the dynamics of the vaccine, which of the vaccines we are going to choose because of the trainer in the protocols.”
Nearly 790,000 people in the UK received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, December 24, with the expectation that the Oxford vaccines, which are roughly 80 to 90,000 doses, will be approved by Tuesday, December 29. .
He hinted that unless manufacturing countries have received their doses, exporting to Ghana will be unrealistic.
“Currently, of the 1.3 billion candidate vaccine doses likely to come to light by the end of December, 15 countries have held them to rescue and in stock.”
