Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare - Presidential Advisor on Health

2nd batch of COVID-19 vaccines arriving in Ghana in 2 weeks

Gertrude Ankah Feb - 27 - 2021 , 15:55 2 minutes read

The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare says Ghana will take delivery of the second batch of COVID-19 vaccines within the next two weeks.

He said the government will be buying the vaccines through direct sources, adding that the government already has a budget in place to purchase these vaccines.

He made this known in a radio interview on Accra based Joy FM, during its Saturday Newsfile programme February 27, 2021.

“The vaccines will be coming in a week or two. It may be a combination of what the government is buying directly and what we have also from the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX). We are at a very advanced stage to get the one the government is buying as well as the one coming from the COVAX facility”, he stated.

He explained that the government was not paying for vaccines from the COVAX facility but it is paying for the deployment.

In addition, he said the private health sector will not be allowed to purchase and administer the vaccines to its clients as it is not for sale.

Background

Ghana Wednesday, February 24, 2021, took delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield).

The 600,000 doses is the first consignment of vaccines acquired through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) which Ghana, among 92 countries, has signed unto.

Ghana is the first country in the world to receive COVID-19 vaccines as part of the COVAX initiative to ensure equitable access for everyone.

The COVID-19 vaccination will begin on March 2 and will be conducted in phases and in segments of the population.

The first segment of the population to receive the doses are health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary and their related staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers and other persons in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area including Kasoa in the Central Region and the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan and Obuasi areas.