Ghana Receives First Doses of AstraZenica Vaccines from Covax After Rollout Began

COVAX reported that 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine which was licensed to Serum Institute of India went to Accra, Ghana recently, and another delivery should be sent to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire soon. 

This marks the beginning of the Global rollout, which depends on readiness criteria and the number of doses produced. Vaccines can be shipped to ready facilities of participants as the roll out continues.

In the coming days the final first round of allocations of AstraZeneca Oxford and Pfizer – BioNTech vaccines might be sent to the countries that will participate in the COVAX facility.

Ghana was the first country outside India to receive the COVID-19 vaccine doses, they were sent via the COVAX Facility. It was a historic step towards the goal of ensuring equal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally. This will be the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation ever done in history. This delivery is just a part of the arrival of vaccines that will continue in the future.

The shipment was sent on 23 February, from India to Accra, Ghana, the vaccines arrived on the morning of 24 February.  The vaccine’s arrival in Accra was the first batch to be shipped and delivered in Africa by the COVAX Facility. This was a part of an unprecedented effort to send at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world by the end of the year.

COVAX is co-led by the Vaccine Alliance, Gavi, the (WHO) World Health Organization (CEPI) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, that works in partnership with the World Bank and UNICEF, manufacturers, civil society organisations, and others.

COVAX plans to quickly assist in ending the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic by sending out the COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world.