Ghana unlikely to secure coronavirus vaccine by March 2021 – Pharmacist

President Akufo-Addo said Ghana will have access to the covid-19 vaccine by the end of March 2021

Pharmacist Kwame Sarpong Asiedu has downplayed Ghana’s possibility of securing COVID-19 vaccines by March 2021 as the reality on the ground does not support such optimism.

The UK-based Ghanaian pharmacist believes that while the country may receive the vaccine next year, it may not be possible until June 2021.

“I know we will have vaccines, but I am realistic and think we probably won’t get anything until the second quarter of 2021,” he told Newsfile host Samson Lardy Anyenini on Saturday.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said Ghana will have access to the covid-19 vaccine by March 2021.

But, the pharmacist and member of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) said vaccine makers had imposed some restrictions on distribution, making it impossible.

“The caveat is that you can only get 20% of your population and for your vulnerable people.

“The other caveat (the vaccine) is that it does not take effect until the end of the first quarter of 2021.”

He further raised concerns about the need for Ghana to prioritize the elderly and vulnerable for immunization.

“In the UK there is an up-to-date register of step-by-step vaccination protocols, starting with people over 80, through to 70-year-old inertial residential foci, then to the vulnerable 65-year-old population … ”

Mr Asiedu noted that the Covex agreement itself said that healthcare professionals and vulnerable populations at risk should be given priority.

“I wonder, even at this moment, if we have identified our vulnerable population in Ghana. So when I heard the president speak and heard others say that we are going to start getting the vaccine by March, I cringe a little because I followed the Covex conversation ”, a- he revealed.

The pharmacist further advised Ghana to arrange for proper storage of vaccines once received.

“It has to be stored on dry ice and in liquefied nitrogen because of the minus 70 degrees… So yes, we will have vaccines but it will be fascinating to see how the dynamics of the vaccine play out and even with the dynamics of the vaccine. , which vaccines we will use through the coach in the protocols.

Nearly 790,000 people in the UK received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, December 24, with hopes that the Oxford vaccines, which contain around 80 to 90,000 doses, will be phased out by Tuesday 29 December.

He hinted that unless manufacturing countries get their fill, exporting to Ghana will not be realistic.

“Currently, of the 1.3 billion doses of vaccine candidates likely to emerge by the end of December, 15 countries have held them in ransom and in stockpiles.”