General News of Sunday, 5 September 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2021-09-05Government bungled Sputnik V but celebrating free vaccines - Manasseh amused
Manasseh Azure Awuni
• Ghanaians are amused that government is celebrating COVID-19 donations from wealthy nations
• This is the view advanced by Manasseh Azure Awuni
• He is amused how government bungled its only known vaccine procurement move but turn around to celebrate donations
Journalist
Read full articletarget='_blank' href='/GhanaHomePage/people/person.php?ID=3601'>Manasseh Azure Awuni has said he believes Ghanaians are bemused at government for celebrating COVID-19 vaccine donations.
He wondered why a government that failed badly at its only vaccine procurement mission so far will turn around to in his words 'claim credit for benevolence.'
Manasseh instead chose to thank development partners who have donated jabs to the government of Ghana through the COVAX equitable vaccine platform.
His views were contained in a September 4 social media post that read: "Thank you, Germany, America, etc, that have donated vaccines to save our lives. I know you're amused that our government, whose only attempt to buy its own vaccines resulted in a massive scandal, is taking credit for your benevolence. We here are equally amused."
Government has planned to vaccinate all of Ghana's adult population by the end of this year but vaccine scarcity across the world means that Ghana is largely dependent on COVAX and other wealthy nations with surplus jabs to get vaccines.
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu came under heavy backlash when it emerged months back that he had breached all procurement processes in seeking to procure vaccines from a Dubai-based businessman.
The said jabs were the Russia-made Sputnik V vaccines. Following an investigative report from a Norwegian newspaper and breach of contract terms by the suppliers, government abrogated the deal and has since received a full refund for payments made upfront.
Ghana is lagging behind vaccination as is the case with most African countries if compared to other continents, but the Ghana Health Service insists that if enough vaccines are secured, Ghana has a robust rollout plan that could help achieve the 20 million target set by government.
