The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, is taking ultimate responsibility for the brouhaha surrounding the government’s procurement of Sputnik-V vaccines.
He said the noise could have been avoided if the Ministry after engaging the middlemen for the Russian vaccines had made the information public.
“I’m leading the battle so I will put my head on. People can criticise me,” he said in an exclusive interview on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem programme, Thursday.
Government came under a barrage of attacks following its decision to use middlemen to secure over million doses of Sputnik-V vaccines at a cost of $19 instead of $10 on the international market.
The Minister of Health is still under pressure for not doing due diligence and the Minority threatening to drag him before Parliament for securing the vaccines at an above-standard price.
Reacting to this, Mr Agyemang-Manu said the concerns raised are genuine, but the government had no option other than to buy the overpriced vaccines.
“As a victim of COVID-19, my focus was to save lives but we have been able to correct the wrongs,” he added.
The Health Minister said the government was committed to procuring more vaccines to inoculate 20 million Ghanaians to ensure a herd immunity.
Meanwhile, Ghana has recorded 94,619 cases, done 1.2 million tests and recorded 789 deaths from Covid-19 related ailments.
Currently, there are 1,190 active cases as at June 15, with 45 daily infections.
Play attached audio above for full interview:
