The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has justified reasons why the government has decided to purchase Sputnik-V vaccines at an overpriced value.
A statement issued by GHS indicated that Ghana was compelled to rely on the market for the vaccines after efforts to purchase directly from the Russian government failed.
“It should be noted that US$ 10 price per dose which is being proposed as the correct price, is the ex-factory price which is only obtained from government to government arrangements. Government of Ghana was unable to obtain direct supplies from the Russian government as stated earlier, hence the resort to the market,” a statement signed by the Chief Director of the GHS, Kwabena Boadu Oku Afari said.
The statement said, “there was scarcity or non-availability of the vaccines on the market.”
“Ghana had also been informed by COVAX that the Astrazeneca vaccines would not arrive till the end of June 2021, so we were operating severely in the suppliers’ market. We were torn between accepting the price to enable us to have access to the vaccine or facing the situation of the seller withdrawing from the negotiations to the extent that the 15,000 doses that had been shipped to Ghana were going to be rerouted to other countries,” the GHS added.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com
