EPI hints of Ghana’s readiness to receive Pfizer, Moderna vaccines

Ghana’s Program Manager of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), Kwame Amponsa-Akyianu has said that Ghana is getting ready to receive Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for emergency use only if it is approved by the Food and Drugs Authority.

In the early days of contemplating Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy, authorities ruled out the procurement of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines based on the storage, distribution and capacity of the country’s existing cold chain infrastructure.

The country’s current cold storage facilities lack the capacity to house vaccines like those manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna because of the arctic temperatures required to store them.

However, Dr. Amponsa-Akyianu has assured that Ghana is likely to receive these vaccines in addition to the existing AstraZeneca vaccines because of preparations being made.

In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he disclosed: “We are preparing the infrastructure to receive Pfizer, Moderna vaccines. We have selected quite a number of facilities especially regional hospitals and some district hospitals that we will send that type of equipment to. So, we are preparing side by side. It is not a decision we are making impulsively. It is work we have been doing for so long so we know what to do”.

Ghana, under the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative, received 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield).

The country is targeting a herd immunity of its population as it expects to vaccinate some twenty-million persons from the first week of March.

Meanwhile, Ghana’s Program Manager for EPI, Dr. Amponsa-Akyianu has stated that as it has been the commitment of the Government, there will be the procurement of other vaccines such as Sputnik V as well as Moderna and Pfizer if approved for emergency use.

Ghana’s active COVID-19 cases stand at 3,701 with 698 deaths.