Ghana receives 249,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from UK gov’t

Ghana has taken delivery of another 249,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government.

The vaccines, which were delivered on Wednesday [August 18, 2021] through the COVAX facility, was received at the Kotoka International Airport by a Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah, a Representative of the UK High Commission, Mr. John Whittle & the UNICEF Representative and other partners.

UNICEF said the donation is to “support the ongoing vaccination campaign.”

The vaccines will be transported to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for storage and subsequent use.

The arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine comes to give a major boost to Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, which slowed down for about two months.

AstraZeneca was the first vaccine to arrive in Ghana earlier this year when the country heightened its efforts to beat COVID-19.

Out of the about 800,000 people to have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, nearly half of the number is yet to get the second jab.

Ghana is already vaccinating a section of the population with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which arrived in the country last month through under the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Trust initiative.

A total of 177,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are currently being administered to unvaccinated persons in COVID-19 hotspots in the Greater Accra region and the Ashanti Region.