President Akufo-Addo has admitted that government is facing challenges in the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines.
According to him, Ghana and other less developed countries have become victims of the shortage of the vaccine primarily due to the Covid-19 situation in India.
He said some 350,000 Ghanaians have received the second dose of the AstraZeneca jab and close to 1 million of the population have had the first jab.
“We have obvious difficulties so far as the vaccination programme is concerned so far through the Covid facility, we’ve received some 1.2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which has enabled us to vaccinate completely some 350,000 people and some 850, 000 have received their first dose.
“Unfortunately we are the victims of these worldwide shortage of vaccines all over both humanity especially the poorer less advantaged nations are experiencing in having access to the vaccines and that of course is the major challenge for the procurement and issues of logistics involved,” he said.
Addressing Ghana’s funding roadmap under the sustainable development goals, President Akufo Addo said the country is exploring ways to start local production of the vaccine.
Government has over the past few days come under criticism as to the appropriate pricing of Sputnik V jabs being acquired from manufacturers including the use of middlemen which experts have described as dubious and inflated cost per dose.
The Health Ministry has, however, heavily defended their position saying the government was bent on saving lives.