• The consignment received is a donation from the Norwegian government
• Ghana is seeking to ramp up its vaccination efforts in the fight against COVID-19
Ghana has on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 received 98,400 doses of COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the government of Norway through the COVAX facility.
The consignment was received by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ghana Health Service.
Ingrid Mollestad, Norwegian Ambassador to Ghana in a tweet wrote, “Very happy to be here as 98,400 vaccine doses donated by Norway through #COVAX is received in Ghana @GhanaMFA @GhanaHealthService Together against #COVID19 @EuropeInGhana @UNICEFGhana”
Country President for AstraZeneca-Africa, Barbara Nel, in a statement said the donation from Norway is expected to boost Ghana’s vaccination efforts.
“I was delighted to see the arrival of 98,400 doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca at Kotoka International Airport today. This donation from Norway will bolster Ghana’s vaccination programme and is wonderful news for the Ghanaian people.”
“Today’s arrival demonstrates the value of governments, industry and others working together to address our continent’s urgent needs to access vaccines. We will continue to advocate for equitable vaccine distribution and for more vaccine to get to Africa this year and into 2022. In this regard, AstraZeneca’s commitment to Africa remains steadfast,” she added.
Ghana earlier in February this year became the first country in West Africa to receive coronavirus vaccines from the COVAX facility with a first consignment of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford model, licensed to Serum Institute of India (SII) – referred to as “AZ/SII”.
COVAX is a global initiative co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi (the Vaccines Alliance) and the World Health Organization, which works with governments and manufacturers to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and availability of vaccines globally, the AstraZaneca vaccine is said to have helped prevent hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations and saved many lives.
Ghana has taken delivery of more AstraZeneca vaccines