The Minister of Health Kwaku Agyemang-Manu says, although 1,426 people have died as a result of Covid-19, government’s management of the pandemic has been a success story.

The Health Minister says, although millions of lives were lost globally due to the pandemic, the government managed to contain the situation, making it one of two countries that better managed the pandemic.

Giving updates on the COVID-19 situation, Mr. Agyemang-Manu indicated that the country now has an active case count of 527 cases. Five people are in critical condition and 1, 426 persons have so far succumbed to the virus.

He was speaking at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday.

“We couldn’t stop COVID-19 impacting negatively on the nation. First of all, government’s finances did not budget for COVID-19. We didn’t have any money as emergency funds to cater for the pandemic, but there have been successes.”

The Health Minister further added that, the country was doing well in the area of COVID-19 vaccinations, stating that 6,000 vaccination teams have been deployed across the country to make sure that this is achieved.

“We will vaccinate as many as we can within a very short time. So, we have started with the vaccine day to make sure that, people get vaccinated. In the process, we have set up about 6,000 teams across the country vaccinating people. So far, Ghana has received 27.4 million doses of vaccines and we have administered 11.8 million doses out of which 8.3 does are one shot.”

The government declared December 2021 as the month of vaccinations, amid growing concerns of vaccine hesitancy among Ghana’s population.

This has been accompanied by vaccine mandates like the directive to all persons to be vaccinated on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport before they can be permitted to enter the country.

This has coincided with the emergence of groups kicking against vaccine mandates, citing the potential of fatal adverse reactions.