Ghana becomes 1st to get COVAX COVID-19 vaccines in Africa

ANKARA (AA) - Ghana became the first African country to receive COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility as some 600,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca doses arrived in the capital Accra Wednesday morning, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa said.

In a tweet, the WHO African region said the delivery is the first wave of arrivals to continue in the coming days.

"We are pleased that Ghana has become the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX Facility," Dr. Francis Kasolo, the WHO Representative to Ghana, said.

“The government of Ghana is taking delivery of 60,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield),” Ghana’s government also said in a statement Wednesday.

"This is the first consignments of vaccines acquired through the COVID-19 vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) which Ghana, among 92 countries, has signed unto,” it added.

COVAX is co-led by the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and WHO. It aims to accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

So far, Ghana has confirmed 584 COVID-19-related deaths and 81,245 infections, according to figures compiled by the US-based John Hopkins University.