COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Resumes

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Ghana will soon resume its vaccination programme.

Calls for the government to resume its vaccination programme have increased, following a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Speaking at a meeting with the outgoing Spanish Ambassador to Ghana, President Akufo-Addo said Ghana had procured some vaccines that will facilitate the government’s vaccination programme.

“The shortage of vaccines has been a problem for countries like ours, but hopefully we will see light at the end of the tunnel very soon. We will start the process of vaccinating or revaccinating our population.”

The president’s assurance comes weeks after he stated that the country is facing challenges with its vaccination programme due to the difficulty in getting access to COVID-19 vaccines.

He explained that the global politics on manufacturing, procurement and distribution is making the situation even more difficult.

The president disclosed that the government had put together a team, led by former Environment, Science and Technology Minister, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, to work out modalities that will see to the production of vaccines in Ghana.

“We have obvious difficulties as far as the vaccination programme is concerned. Unfortunately, we are the victims of this worldwide shortage of vaccines that poor and less advantaged nations are experiencing by not having access to the vaccines.”

22 deaths in two weeks

The death rate is rising sharply in recent weeks.

From the periodic statistics given by the Disease Surveillance Department of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the deaths have risen from 799 as at Sunday, July 11 to 821 as at Sunday, July 25.

And with the cases not commensurate with the current date, more deaths may have been recorded.

The latest case counts are for data collated as of Wednesday, July 21.

The rise in deaths as well as infections has been attributed to the new variant of the virus, Delta, which is said to spread faster and kill easily.

So far, 101,170 Covid-19 cases have been recorded since the virus hit the country in 2020.

About 96,255 have recovered or been discharged while 821 have died.

The country currently has 4,094 patients in admission at various treatment centers. Twenty-six are in severe conditions with 15 in critical conditions.

The country has so far also administered 1,271,393 vaccines.

Out of the number, 865,422 persons have received the first jab while 405,971 had received their second dose.