Ghana is expected to receive additional two million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines by the end of May, News Ghana reported Tuesday, citing one of the country’s topmost health officials.
The West African nation on February 24 received more than 600,000 doses of the vaccine, in what was the first shipment of coronavirus vaccines to Africa through the global sharing facility Covax. Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Ethiopia, among others, have since received their first batches from the project, led by the World Health Organisation.
“We are pleased that Ghana has become the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccines from the Covax Facility. We congratulate the Government of Ghana – especially the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, and Ministry of Information – for its relentless efforts to protect the population,” UNICEF said in a statement at the time.
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Additional delivery of the vaccines would aid Ghana’s goal to vaccinate around 20 million of its people. According to reports, more than 300,000 people have been inoculated since the Covid-19 mass vaccination programme started on March 2. The country has recorded more than 86,000 cases but less than 1,000 deaths.
“Those who received doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines included, health care workers, persons with underlying health conditions, essential service providers and those who were 60 years and above, as well as members of the security agencies, Executive, Legislature and Judiciary branches of government,” the Director-General of Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, was quoted as saying.
Also Read: Ghana Receives First Shipment of Covid-19 Vaccine through Covax
The vaccines being distributed currently are part of an initial supply of the AstraZeneca & Oxford vaccine licensed to the Serum Institute of India and of the first wave of Covid jabs headed to several low and middle-income countries.
Vaccination programmes have been slow to get off the ground in Africa, but the start of the Covax initiative has helped facilitate things. Rwanda last Friday kicked off the national Covid-19 vaccination programme. Across Africa, almost 4 million cases of the novel coronavirus disease had been recorded as of Tuesday, March 9, with more than 100,000 deaths.
In addition to the WHO and UNICEF, the programme is supported by Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). It hopes to have delivered 2 billion vaccine doses to poor nations by the end of the year.
