Dr Nsiah Asare assures that government is working on AstraZeneca vaccines for people to have their 2nd jab

Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, says authorities are working earnestly to secure the second doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to begin phase 2 of the vaccination for those who were only able to get their first jabs.

Dr. Asare had earlier stated that health authorities will focus on having as many Ghanaians as possible receiving the first jab despite concerns about inadequate supply of vaccines.

In the light of challenges with the global supply chain of vaccines, countries like Nigeria halted giving out the first jabs as a means of saving the remaining doses to be given as second jabs to those who inoculated during the first vaccination exercise.

Some experts have suggested that Ghana considers this approach, but Dr. Nsiah Asare says Ghana will stick to its existing plan for the vaccination.

Speaking to the media the Presidential Advisor on Health said the government is working hard to get new AstraZeneca vaccines for people with the first dose to be able to complete their second doses.

“When we got the 350,000 doses from Congo DR, we started giving it to people who started vaccinating from the 1st to 9th March, so far we have given 370,000 people their second dose , and we are left with about 500,000 people that have to be be given their second dose. We are working round the clock to get AstraZeneca for those who are due for their second jab. These people received their jab from 10th March to April, when we finished the first jab deployment.”

“We hope that we get these things within the next few weeks to give them to all those 500,000 people who have taken their first dose. We hope to get them their doses before the expiry which is towards the end of June and the others, beginning of July.”

“So we are hopeful that the Covax facility will come, and we are hoping for the deployment plan, and we are very sure that we will get some AstraZeneca through Covax. We are also working hard to get some AstraZeneca that the US has in their possession and are going to redistribute to the Covax facility and the African Union. We have also registered for vaccines from Johnson and Johnson so when it drops, we can start another deployment,” he added.