Ghana’s Programmes Manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), Kwame Amponsa-Akyianu has assured that expired COVID-19 vaccines will never find their way into the system to harm people.
According to him, the EPI has a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that ensures that expired vaccines are completely disposed off.
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Dr. Amponsa-Akyianu explained the process in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show when he said: “Expired vaccines will never find their way into the system. This is not the first time that we are doing this type of campaign.
We have the skills in delivering vaccines in large quantities. What we have in the system is that if vaccines are expiring, we receive all those vaccines back into the regional cold room and then we have a standard way of disposing; FDA will be present, UNICEF will be present and WHO will be present. Of course, Ghana Health Service as well as environmental health. That is our standard and that is exactly what we will do. So now the vaccines have been received into the regional posts. And eventually it will be disposed with our SOP. So, the vaccines will never find their way into the system”.
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About a week ago, it was reported that about 480 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines delivered to the Northern Regional Health Directorate had gone waste due to the Directorate’s inability to exhaust its supply of vaccines at the close of the vaccination exercise on Tuesday, April 13, 2021.
The vaccines were to expire on Friday, April, 16 but the Directorate decided to end the vaccination exercise as a precautionary measure on the advice of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah