Government To Receive Extra Two Million COVID-19 Vaccines By May

The Government of Ghana will receive an additional two million of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility by the end of May, this year. That would boost the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme and aid the government’s quest to vaccinate about 20 million Ghanaians and so far, the country had received

more than 700,000 thousand COVID-19 vaccines for its vaccination programme. Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director-General, Ghana Health Service, announced this during a COVID-19 Update at the Peduase Lodge in the Eastern Region on the Monday. He said the government was making all frantic efforts to secure the cold chain

equipment that was capable of storing vaccines under negative temperatures. He said the Service had, so far, vaccinated 300,000 people since the COVID-19 mass vaccination programme started on March 2, 2021. Out of the number, 129 persons reported various adverse effects including dizziness and pains at the spot of the

injection and mild fever after taking the vaccines. Those who received doses of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccines included, health care workers, persons with underlying health conditions, essential service providers and those who were 60 years and above, as well as members of all the security agencies, the Executive, Legislature and

Judiciary branches of government. Dr Kuma Aboagye said the GHS targeted 570,000 people in the first phase of the vaccination, but the number of people vaccinated and registered onto the the electronic database system within a week had exceeded the 70 percent threshold. He applauded the media for intensifying sensitisation

on the vaccine, which encouraged all the Ghanaians to voluntarily avail themselves of the vaccination. Dr Kuma Aboagye stated some of the vaccines were delivered to the various health centres via the Zipline drone delivery service. GHS boss announced that a locally developed App would soon be launched to aid in the appointment and registration of people onto the electronic database

system to speed up the vaccination programme. The mass vaccination exercise will continue till the end of October, this year. About twenty million Ghanaians are expected to be vaccinated although the government’s ambition is to vaccinate the entire population and the government of Ghana received its first batch of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of the India, under the Global Access (COVAX Facility) on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.