By The first batch of Oxford-Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Ghana on Wednesday.
The shipment was facilitated through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Assess Facility, COVAX — a World Health Organization-backed programme, set up to divide about two billion doses of vaccines across 92 low-and middle-income countries.
This development was confirmed in a statement published on the WHO website on Wednesday.
“On 23 February, COVAX shipped 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/ Oxford vaccine, from the Serum Institute of India (SII) from Pune, India to Accra, Ghana, arriving on the morning of 24 February.
“The arrival in Accra is the first batch shipped and delivered in Africa by the COVAX Facility as part of an unprecedented effort to deliver at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021,” it said.
Since the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Africa about a year ago, Ghana has recorded over 81,200 infections with almost 600 fatalities, as seen in official data from Ghanaian health authorities.
According to the WHO, the delivery is part of a first wave of arrivals that will continue in the coming days and weeks as other African countries are expected to start receiving the COVID-19 vaccines.
The international agency added that along with the initial shipment to Accra, more deliveries are expected to arrive in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, this week.
The WHO described the vaccines shipment as a historic moment, saying “This is a historic step towards our goal to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, in what will be the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history.”
