The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has urged Ghanaians to be cautious about President Akufo-Addo’s promise of some 18 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines arriving in the country by October.
According to the General Secretary of the GMA, Dr Titus Bayuo, previous promises about vaccine arrivals by government have not materialized.
“Frankly, with the 18 million doses of vaccines promised by the President, we will have to be cautious because were told we were getting some one or two million doses in the past and as of now how many of them are in? maybe they are in and I don’t know or haven’t seen them”.
“So until I see the 18 million doses we shouldn’t jump ahead of ourselves. Until I see the doses in Ghana I won’t jubilate. Until we get them in the arm of every Ghanaian I will hesitate in jubilating,”
Ghana hopes to receive over 18 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines before October as it struggles to contain a third wave of infections, President Akufo-Addo said in a speech on Sunday.
We are expecting, through the COVAX facility, one million Pfizer vaccines from the United States of America, two hundred and twenty-nine thousand, six hundred and seventy (229,670) Pfizer vaccines from the African Union, and two hundred and forty-nine thousand (249,000) AstraZeneca vaccines from the United Kingdom.
“Government is also in the process of procuring seventeen million (17 million) single dose per person Johnson & Johnson vaccines, through the African Medicine Supply Platform, in this quarter,” the President in his address.
So far, a total of one million, three hundred and ninety-four thousand, five hundred and forty (1,394,540) tests have been conducted, out of which one hundred and one thousand, one hundred and seventy (101,170) persons have been infected with the virus, and ninety-six thousand, two hundred and fifty-five (96,255) persons have recovered.
“Sadly, thirty-six (36) more people have died from COVID over the last ten (10) weeks, bringing the cumulative number of deaths to eight hundred and nineteen (819) since the onset of the pandemic. Greater Accra and Greater Kumasi Metropolitan areas remain the hotspots of infections. This entire development is very alarming, especially as we are being told by officials of the Ghana Health Service, that the recovery rate is on the decline,” the President noted.
