20,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Dubai Sheikh have been used – GHS DG

20,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Dubai Sheikh have been used – GHS DG

• Ghana received 20,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines out of a possible 300,000

• The doses were procured from the Russian govt through an Emirati middleman

• GHS DG confirms that all the doses have since been deployed

Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kumah-Aboagye, has disclosed that all 20,000 vaccines purchased from an Emirati businessman months back have been deployed.

According to him, all the doses were deployed as part of Ghana’s vaccination drive which has seen over 1.3 million people receive coronavirus shots.

Unlike in the case of AstraZeneca vaccines which some Ghanaians are yet to receive their second shot, the twin Sputnik shots were administered to 10,000 people.

“Yes we have used it (the 20,000 supplied), it is fine, I haven’t heard anything (about it’s negative effect), so we have vaccinated about 10,000 people with it,” he told Paul Adom-Otchere on the August 10 edition of Good Evening Ghana programme.

Asked whether the recipients were not skeptical about receiving the Russia-made vaccines, he said: “Sputnik still gives you about 94% cover in terms of its efficiency. It is quite efficient. It is registered in Ghana for emergency use.”

The procurement of the vaccines have been the subject of protracted public discourse after it emerged that Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu breached laid down processes and procedure in dealing with the suppliers.

Calls are being made for his resignation for malfeasance even though the supplier in question, one Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Makhtoum, has refunded in excess of 2.4 million dollars, which is the cost of some 280,000 doses that his office failed to deliver.

The minister is currently on a two-week leave to attend to "personal issues" and the president has shown no signs of relieving him of his post.

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