Ghana to receive 350,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine today

As announced by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Saturday, May 1, 2021, the country will later today take delivery of 350,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The government’s quest to achieve herd immunity has been threatened with challenges faced in the procurement of vaccines.

But some breakthrough has been made with the impending arrival of the 350,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which is from the COVAX facility.

President Akufo-Addo also disclosed that 1.3million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine will arrive in the country by May 15, 2021.

He restated the government’s desire to vaccinate 20million of the country’s total population.

“We are receiving 350,000 more AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility on Tuesday in addition to the first consignment of 600,000 that came to us on 24th of February. By 15th May, the government would have procured some 1.3 million Sputnik vaccines. We are determined to vaccinate some 20 million Ghanaians, that is the entire adult population by the end of this year, and we remain on course to achieve this goal,” he said.

The government has come under pressure from the Minority group in Parliament recently following delays in the arrival of vaccines for the second round of vaccination.

At a press conference held last week, a Minority spokesperson on health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh expressed worry about the delay in the arrival of the vaccine.

“We would like to call on the government to expedite the action on vaccines as earlier promised. Ghanaians were informed that the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines will provide a high level of protection for about eight weeks by which time another consignment would have arrived to ensure the administering of second jabs for those who had received their first jab.”

“As we speak, not an additional dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine has arrived, putting Ghanaians who have already received the first jab at risk of losing the partial immunity acquired through vaccination.”

So far, more than 800,000 people have received their first jabs of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines with the Greater Accra Region having the highest number of inoculated persons.

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