Member of Parliament for Juaboso Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has said that the vaccines that arrived in Ghana on Saturday were from Nigeria.
He asked how come Nigeria had excess vaccines to supply but Ghana could not have enough available to inoculate the babies.
Conrtbutingto a debate in Parliament on Tuesday, March 14 on the Stae of the Nationa address presented by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-AddoOn Saturday Mr Akandoh said “we heard that Ghana has taken delivery of some vaccines but what they didn’t add was that these vaccines were coming from Nigeria.
“I have absolutely no problem if the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) confirms that these are good vaccines but the bigger question is, how come Nigeria has excess vaccines and we don’t have any? The vaccines that we have taken delivery of can only last for six weeks.”
The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service took delivery of the first consignment of vaccines for Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), Measles-Rubella (MR), and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) on Saturday, March 11.
This came days after the sector minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu assured the nation on the floor of Parliament that the vaccines were going to arrive soon.
“Mr Speaker, it is a very serious public interest issue, the assurance I will give and I can give for the first time in the chamber here is that this will not happen again,” the Dormaa Central Member said on Friday, March 10.
“I will advise that you will help me in my advocacy to get adequate funding for vaccines, even the health insurance budget. So when we meet with committees, they have always been talking about it, and even in the chamber, it has come up that if Parliament approves adequately for us and we always have our budget well we will be able to supply. I assure you that whatever challenges happened I don’t think we are going to face these challenges any longer.
“I can stand here and assure the House that within two weeks or three weeks we will get vaccines, even probably before that. I can’t get my hands on a specific date but probably even before that, we may get the vaccines that we are talking about. Throughout the period we have made 6.4million dollars equivalent to UNICEF who supplies us the vaccines.”
On Saturday, March 11, the Director-General of the Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, was on the tarmac of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), leading the delegation to welcome in the consignment.
“Distribution to various regions and facilities [are] underway,” a post on the Ministry of Information Facebook page said.
“More vaccines expected in Ghana in the coming weeks from multiple sources.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana