Ghana advised to shift towards the Pfizer vaccine as Indian Covid strain enters country
Get Pfizer vaccines to be effective in fight against Covid-19 – Professor Awandare advises Ghana
Ghana has been advised to ditch Astrazeneca and Sputnik V vaccines for more effective ones following the detection of the deadly Delta COVID-19 variant in the country.
Head of the West Africa Center for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens, WACCBIP, of the University of Ghana, Professor Gordon Awandare, said the Indian variant, also known as the Delta variant, is one of the 45 variants which are currently in Ghana.
This variant cannot be defeated by AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines.
“Now we have to be looking at the right vaccines. All this while, we’ve been fixed on AstraZeneca and Sputnik V but we have to shift towards more of Pfizer and others which have a better chance of protecting against this variant. Because the future is, we are going towards these aggressive variants,” he told Joy News.
The Indian strain has worsened coronavirus situations in India and UK although a large section of the population had been vaccinated.
Prof Awandare said now that the Delta variant is dominating the various strains of the virus, it is likely to soon be found in large quantities in Ghana as travellers enter the country.
“We have a few here but it’s going to increase,” Prof Awandare added.
Professor Awandare has recommended immediate, stringent enforcement of the COVID-19 preventive protocols by the government to hold the potential spread of the deadly variant from India.
In addition, he added that the controls at the Airport must be tightened to stop more importation of the variant.
By: Stella Annan |myactiveonline.com
