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
Ghana aims to vaccinate 20 million citizens