Ghana is in line to receive a
total of 2,412,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines under the COVAX platform. This
is according to an interim distribution forecast shared by Gavi, the Vaccine
Alliance on Wednesday, February 3.
Ghana, like most sub-Saharan
African countries will be supplied with the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine,
licensed to Serum Institute of India (SII) – referred to as “AZ/SII”
According to the release, all
things being equal, participating countries will receive between 35 – 40% of
their allocations by March 2021 with the remaining 55 – 60% delivered by mid
year. Ghana could thus receive approximately 965,000 doses of the vaccine
latest by end of March.
“Total doses cover, on average,
3.3% of the total population of the 145 participants receiving doses from at
least one manufacturer in the list detailed below.
“This is in line with the
Facility target to reach at least 3% population coverage in all countries, in
the first half of the year, enough to protect the most vulnerable groups such
as health care workers,” the release added.
“The doses expected should suffice
to fully vaccinate Ghana’s healthcare workforce, who are rightly the immediate
priority,” Research Fellow, New York University School of Global Public Health,
Nana Kofi Quakyi told GhanaFact.
The second tranche of vaccine
supplies expected will come up to about 1.5 million doses and is expected
latest by June 2021. Whiles some countries will self finance their allocations,
Ghana will be supplied based on COVID-19 Vaccines Advance Market
Commitment (COVAX AMC).
The AMC is an innovative financing instrument that will
support the participation of 92 low- and middle-income economies in the COVAX
Facility – enabling access to donor-funded doses of safe and
effective COVID-19 vaccines.
In his 23rd coronavirus address
which was delivered on Sunday, January 31, 2021; President Akufo-Addo said that
the government’s initial target is to vaccinate 20 million Ghanaians.
“Our aim is to vaccinate the
entire population with an initial target of 20 million people. Through
bilateral and multilateral means, we are hopeful that by the end of June, a
total of 17,600,000 vaccine doses would have been procured for the Ghanaian
people,” he said.
In a recent interview, Dr
Nsiah-Asare, the presidential advisor on health catalogued how the vaccine
rollout will be implemented. Speaking on Citi TV, Dr Nsiah-Asare disclosed that
the populace had been categorized into four, based on which the exercise will
be carried out.
The categories were: frontline
workers, people with some form of health risk and co-morbidities, workers who
offer essential services, the arms of government and the remaining population.
Aside from the COVAX vaccine allocation, government
was also looking to get assistance from other international organizations.
Statement: THE COVAX FACILITY: INTERIM DISTRIBUTION FORECAST
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