Ghana

Ghana takes delivery of 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 10:01 AM by Mohammed Awal

- The pandemic which was first reported in China has disrupted a lot of things, leading to many deaths

- It has also led to the institution of internal lockdowns and closure of borders - Ghana took delivery of its first batch of vaccines on Thursday

- The country also signed an agreement with the Russian government for more vaccine

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Ghana has taken delivery of some 600,000 doses COVID-19 vaccine.

The country is one of the 145 countries of the UN-led COVAX Facility earmarked to take delivery of 2.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine licensed to the Serum Institute of India (AZ/SII).

Ghana takes delivery of 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine — Photo credit: UNICEF Ghana
Source: Facebook

Over 200 million dollars is being spent to procure the vaccines, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) revealed.

The vaccines arrived at the Kotoka International Airport on the morning of Thursday, February 22, 2021, on an Emirates Airlines cargo, EK787.

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It was received by a delegation led by Ghana’s Health Minister to designate, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu.

The COVID-19 vaccination is expected to begin on March 2, 2021, and it will be in phases with health workers, adults 60 years and over, and people with underlying health conditions, frontline being among the first recipients of it.

President Nana Akufo-Addo’s advisor on health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, said no Ghanaian would pay a dime before taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

“It is free to the ordinary citizen,” he stated in an interview monitored by YEN.com.gh on Accra-based Asaase Radio on Monday, February 22, 2021.

Dr. Nsiah Asare said the country was supposed to get about 20% of those vaccines which are about six million.

He further noted that the country is getting vaccines from bilateral organisations as well as the private sector which agreed to give vaccines for the corporate organisations, “but they will also give the government the same amount of vaccines.”

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COVID-19 vaccine will be free to ordinary citizens - Presidential on health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare says

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Ghana signed on to a consignment of the Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine.

This emergency authorization was captured in a press statement by the Russian Government which states the Ghana government had “granted an emergency authorization” of the vaccine, Reuters News Agency reported. Ghana has had 80,253 cases of the virus and 577 deaths.

The country currently has 6,658 active cases of infection, according to the latest update from the Ghana Health Service.

Below is the cumulative Cases per Region

(Case Count from Highest to Lowest)

Greater Accra Region – 46,189

Ashanti Region – 14,046 Western Region – 4,742

Eastern Region – 3,525 Central Region – 2,783

Volta Region – 1,559

Bono East Region – 1,081

Upper East Region – 994

Northern Region – 970

Bono Region – 924

Western North Region – 797