The Programme Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said that it has put a hold on administering the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines currently available in the country.

This, according to Dr Kwame Amponsah-Achiano, is because the quantities available are insufficient for mass vaccination.

“We have not started using it because the first and second doses of Sputnik V are not the same. The vaccine has a match dosing regimen and unfortunately, we did not get matching quantities. So we are putting it on hold for now until we get matching quantities,” he said.

This, however, does not mean that the 15,000 vaccines Ghana has taken delivery of from Russia have gone to waste.

With regards to the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine received from the COVAX facility in February, Dr Amponsah-Achiano also revealed that almost all 600,000 doses of the vaccine have been exhausted.

He further stated that the programme has so far not received any report of vaccine rejection in any of the 43 districts they were deployed to.