The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced that AstraZeneca vaccines would no longer be administered in the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General of the GHS, stated that the Service had not purchased the AstraZeneca Vaccines in the last two years and urged those who had already taken them not to panic.
He gave the assurance when he toured some health facilities in Ga East as part of the COVID-19 Vaccination and Child Health Promotion Week/African Vaccination Week Campaign.
This follows reports in international media that AstraZeneca had withdrawn its COVID-19 vaccination worldwide, admitting that the medication could cause very rare but life-threatening complications.
In Ghana, a total of 10, 545, 038 AstraZeneca vaccine doses were administered.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye suggested that AstraZeneca’s decision to withdraw their COVID-19 vaccines from the global market was driven by commercial considerations.
He assured that no adverse events had been reported because of administering AstraZeneca shots in the country and that the only vaccine now available in the system was Johnson & Johnson.
AstraZeneca, formerly known as Covishield, a British-Swedish company, withdrew its EU marketing authorization for the vaccine, Vaxzevria, in 2021.
The authorisation is the approval to market a drug in the EU’s member states. The withdrawal was due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” against new variants of the novel coronavirus, the company said.
Dr. Micheal Adjabeng, Surveillance Officer for the World Health Organization Ghana, stated that his office, in collaboration with the Food and Drugs Authority, would ensure that the best vaccine was available to the public.
The country recorded five active COVID-19 cases recently.
