I never said pregnant women, children will not receive coronavirus vaccines - Prof Dodoo

The Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority(GSA) Professor Alex Dodoo, has denied reports that a certain category of people will not receive the government’s planned vaccination against COVID-19.

He is reported to have said pregnant women, children, people with underlying health conditions, and the aged will not be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Clarifying the issue on the 3FM’s Sunrise Morning Show, Prof. Dodoo noted “The factual things are that those most in need of protection are the first to receive the vaccine for as long as there is no medical reason why they should not and that for instance, a pregnant woman can be given a vaccine but in that case, it is a case by case. But if you have someone who is 70 years, hypertension, diabetics, no other condition we will give it to the one”.

According to Prof. Dodoo, the government will give clear instructions for the roll out of the vaccines when they arrive.

The government is seeking to import some 19.5 doses of vaccines into the country by the end of June with the first batch of 2.4 million doses from AstraZeneca expected by March.

According to Prof. Dodoo: “All the available vaccines that Ghana will register will be given to everyone who needs it, provided the benefit they would derive would far outweigh the risks it will pose to them so you take a group like pregnant women the advice from AstraZeneca is that before you give it to a pregnant woman be sure that she’s not vulnerable because really we don’t know much about the vaccine in pregnancy”.

“The reality is that we will give it to those who are most at risk and those who will get the most protection because they need to be protected and those who are strong and don’t need protection will come lower down and normally we start with those with hypertension and diabetes so that statement is untrue," he stated.