Parliament approves $200m loan facility for the purchase COVID-19 vaccines for Ghanaians

Pulse News

July 7, 2021 7:36 AM

Ghana’s Parliament has approved a loan agreement facility of 200 million Dollars for the financing for the COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project.

covid vaccine

This is to enable the rolling out of a mass vaccination programme in the country since a number of individuals who had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine are yet to receive the second dose.

Presenting the Finance Committee’s report at the plenary, Financing agreement between the Government and the International Development Association on the Floor of Parliament on Tuesday, July 6, 2021, the Committee Chairman, Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng disclosed that, the facility will be used to purchase COVID-19 vaccines to help save lives of Ghanaian citizens.

According to him, the pressing need to activate a robust COVID-19 vaccination programme as well as strengthen the health system in the country has necessitated the need for this additional financing.

“This is within the context that the number of individuals who had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination in Ghana as of March 2021 is estimated at 475,000 out of the target 17.5 Million people,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Ghana has recorded new cases of the highly transmissible COVID-19 strain, Delta variant.

According to the Ghana Health Service, the Delta variant was detected in Achimota SHS in Accra.

Dr. Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, the director of public health at the GHS, indicated that the affected students were mostly asymptomatic and are responding to treatment.

“... we had information that the school [name not given] had actually detected a Delta variant, and this somehow confirms what we were anticipating. The parents of the students who have been infected have been informed.”

The Delta variant, which originated from India, was initially said to have been contained at the Kotoka International Airport after it was detected among some travellers.

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