Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, has expressed government’s commitment in ensuring the delivery of more COVID-19 vaccines into the country.

According to him, President Akufo-Addo is currently engaging in diplomatic efforts to ensure delivery of more vaccines.

Speaking in an interview, Mr. Agyeman-Manu further revealed that, the President has resorted to diplomatic engagements with other countries. This, he revealed, has become necessary because of truncated supply from India on the export of AstraZeneca Vaccine.

“The vaccines (that) were expected to be delivered by Covax in April and May have been delayed because of challenges in India. India has stopped exports and therefore we can’t have access to AstraZeneca any longer. The President is making very high-level diplomatic engagement and we believe that it may yield results”.

In March, India placed a temporary ban on all exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. This was in a bid to address its country’s rising cases which called for domestic demand.

Currently, India is fighting a distressing second wave of Covid-19 killing thousands each day. The second wave, which began in March, has escalated rapidly, with India recording more than a million new cases in just three days.

Reducing imported cases of COVID-19

Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye further revealed that, the growing number of COVID-19 cases recorded at the Kotoka International Airport echoes the surge in other parts of the world.

According to the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, measures are in place to lessen the importation of the coronavirus.

The Frontiers Healthcare Services, in a statement disclosed its observation to the Managing Director of the Ghana Airports Company Limited. It revealed that, there is an increasing number of positive COVID-19 cases recorded at the Airport.

Commenting on this, Dr. Kuma-Aboagye maintained that the surge in numbers justifies the testing of passengers arriving in the country.

“In January, we recorded about 430 cases, in February the number came down. In March, it was only 93. Currently, we are doing about 193 cases. So, it depends on the surge, and it always reflects what is happening in the neighbourhood and the rest of the world.”

Dr. Kuma-Aboagye further revealed that PCR test is part of the measures to check the importation of the “cases and eliminate it”.

According to him, this usually reflects from areas “where you have a surge”.

“For instance, if you have a surge in Asia, then you will see a lot of cases from there. So that is the indication.”

Asymptomatic patients

The GHS Director further explained that the Ga East Hospita has detained passengers who show signs of illness. Also, asymptomatic persons, he revealed are currently in isolation centres.

“They are being detained. We do the triaging for them and those who are sick are kept at the Ga East Hospital. Those who are asymptomatic are put in our isolation centres. Some of the foreigners are also taken to the hotel.

“We keep them and then if the test is repeated, and it’s negative you are discharged. If it’s positive, we keep them”.

Meanwhile, aviation expert, Sean Mendis, has disclosed that the high cases of COVID-19 recorded at KIA is proof of a robust testing system.

According to him, the country’s challenge now is the “pretesting failures” which can be addressed by liaising with specific laboratories for testing. This, he averred, will ensure passengers have consolidated reports from laboratories.