Pharmacists urge Ghana to meet 20 million COVID-19 vaccination target by December
The Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy (GNCoP), has called on government to focus on creating speedy access to certified COVID-19 vaccinnes to enable the country, reach the two million target by the end of 2021.
It said, Ghana needed to engage government to government, go into local packaging and production of vaccines as well as involve credible third parties to ensure there were enough vaccines from credible sources to enable the country to attain herd immunity.
A statement issued in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency by the Chamber, said.
It noted that Ghana was behind Europe and USA by four to six months in the fight against COVID-19, “Thus, it is possible to predict where we will be should we not do much about the prevention and following the laid down protocols.”
The statement said the rest of the world was not panicking because those countries focused on getting access to vaccines and increasing their vaccination rates to herd immunity levels.
It said increased vaccination was relevant as it was leading to less hospitalisation and deaths even as the rest of the world opened their schools and economies, which had started picking up.
The statement said that was because they were strictly observing all the relevant protocols and applying stringent and punitive actions, including spot fines against defaulters.
It said South Africa, Morocco, and Senegal were setting up local vaccine packaging and production capacities and that Ghana needed to fast track the process to follow suit locally to sustain the demand now and in the near future.
“We have credible members of the GNCoP with the right network and experience to help source World Health Organisation’s approved COVID-19 vaccines and they are willing to support the process”.
“At this time, what we need as a nation is a concerted effort leveraging on our strengths together to get enough vaccines for the general population,” it stated.
It asked the country to move on with the lessons learnt out of the abortive attempt to procure the Sputnik V vaccines and support the Health Minister to lead the process in procuring enough vaccines from all credible sources in collaboration with Ghana’s Ambassadors and High Commissioners in various parts of the world.
“The network and experience of our Minister of Health, Hon Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, in managing the pandemic has been good so far, let’s stand with him to continue his good work and this is not the time to change leadership.”
“We need to put together our expertise as Ghanaians and partner the relevant external bodies to procure and produce enough vaccines thus preventing increased morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19 pandemic and its variants in Ghana,” it said.
Source: GNA