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The Center for Social Justice (CSJ) has underscored the dire implication the vaccine shortages could have on the country and the need to take urgent measures to resolve the issue to prevent catastrophic consequences.
The Center in a statement warned that the shortages “if not expeditiously tackled puts our country at a huge risk of worsening disease outbreaks, an obliteration of all the gains made in increasing vaccine coverage and the reduction in under-5 mortality.”
The Center also expressed disappointment with the explanations given by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service as being the reason behind the shortages.
“We were disappointed to learn from Dr. Patrick Kumah Aboagye, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service that these shortages are because of the depreciation of the cedi to the dollar. This exposes a culture of poor prioritization of health issues. Ghana’s failure to fulfil her co-financing obligations to Gavi is embarrassing and the CSJ would like to urge the government to prioritize health as it has a knock-on effect on all aspects of our lives.”
It also touched on “the lack of seriousness shown by the Minister of Health, exemplified by his non-response to parliamentary summons portends grave outcomes in our health sector. This development should not occur again! The Minister’s failure to appear before parliament shows a lack of accountability and was a missed opportunity to reassure the public about steps being taken to arrest a serious situation.”
“We are by this statement calling on the government and concerned development partners to, as a matter of urgency work together to ensure that the needed vaccine doses are procured, and steps taken by the government to commit funds to avert a recurrence of this in future,” it added.
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