On Wednesday, February 24, Ghana took delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield).

The country became the first country to receive the first consignment of vaccines acquired through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) which Ghana, among 92 countries, has signed unto.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address on Tuesday, March 9, President Akufo-Addo said "a total of 262,335 Ghanaians had received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccines at 10:30 am on March 9" adding Ghana will take delivery of 17.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by June 2021, with more to come later in the year.

Prequel to the arrival of the free COVAX vaccine, the president told us that Ghana, was to take delivery of the Astrazeneca and Sputnik vaccines. It is almost a month now, and the country is yet to take delivery of Sputnik Vaccines, as the first consignment of AstraZenaca vaccines run out.

While, plans have been put in place by the government to bring in enough vaccines to vaccinate the over 30 million Ghanaians, this newspaper appeals to the president, to summon the courage to tell us the true state of affairs. To make matters even more harrowing, 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.

According to Dr Kwame Amponsah-Achiano, "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.

Dr. Amponsah-Achiano, did not indicate when Ghana, will take delivery of enough doses for it to be administer.

It is trite knowledge that, vaccines are to be stored at a certain temperature. The vaccine as it is could go to waste and we have to wait another month or two to take delivery of new consignment.

This lacuna unwittingly created by the delay in getting enough Sputnik Vaccines to administer, is beginning to present its own challenges, as it is obvious that, the country on it own, is not in a position to provide vaccines for its people.