The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu has assured Parliament that steps are underway to ensure that vaccines are procured for children in the next few weeks.
Mr Agyemeng-Manu gave the assurance on the floor of the House during his briefing to Members of Parliament on the matter on Thursday.
He said: “Mr Speaker, we are expecting to receive vaccines within two to three weeks. We have done all the necessary arrangements and within two to three weeks we should get the vaccines.”
According to the Health Minister, the government had done everything to ensure that the country had a delivery of vaccines earlier but it will be difficult to tell exactly when the vaccines will arrive.
Some members of the Minority caucus had demanded for a briefing by the Health Minister on the childhood vaccine situation in the country.
Kwaku Agyemang-Manu in his briefing said several uncontrolled factors determine when the vaccines would arrive in the country.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament on Tuesday, March 07 2023 described the shortage of vaccines in the country “as a clear indication of the government’s ineptitude.”
The group, through the ranking Member on the Health Committee Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said despite the allocation of about GH¢72 million for the procurement of vaccines, the country had been hit with the outbreak of Measles since October 2022 due to the shortage of vaccines.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday during the presentation of the State of the Nations Address expressed concern over the shortage of childhood vaccines in the country.
President Akufo-Addo, therefore, assured that efforts were underway to ensure that vaccines were procured immediately for all children.
“Mr Speaker, I must say, however, that the current shortage of some childhood vaccines in the country has concerned me greatly. This shortage, if prolonged, will affect negatively Ghana’s Childhood Immunisation Programme, which has been recognised as one of the most successful in the world. The WHO has only recently expressed worry about a steady decline in measles vaccination coverage globally, because of the concentration on the fight against COVID-19,” he said.
