The Bureau of Public Safety has advised government to consider including a broad system that will monitor and evaluate all recipients of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

“The government should strongly consider including, as part of its vaccination program, a broad system of continuous surveillance to monitor and evaluate persons who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

In a statement released by the Bureau of Public Safety on March 1, 2021, the civil society organisation noted that the inclusion of a monitoring system will help the country pay close attention to the way different people react to the vaccine and how to respond to any developments.

“The Bureau is informed by issues such as appropriateness for use by some demographic population groups and relatively low efficacy (75-76%) against primary symptomatic COVID-19 in the first 3 months after vaccination and the fact that some developed countries including South Africa have rejected the AstraZeneca vaccines. This should ensure that the country fully remains in the known on matters arising to enable swift response to adverse developments.”

They also commended the President, Nana Akufo-Addo for taking the lead by receiving the vaccine first.

“The Bureau of Public Safety commends the President, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the COVID-19 management team for working hard to obtain the COVAX facility to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus in our country, i.e. secure citizens’ health, restore the economy, and social life to a certain normal.”

“The government should accelerate efforts to secure/procure vaccines with higher proven efficacy, (in addition to the AstraZeneca vaccine), against the predominant strains in Ghana (i.e. Wuhan or wildtype, UK and South African variants). Considering reports from South Africa, Germany, Austria, and other European countries the Bureau would like to urge Government to apply equal haste as with the COVAX facility to access these relatively more efficacious vaccines for the general population to achieve the herd effect and restore the economy and social life to a certain normal,” BPS added in the statement.

—citinewsroom