Ghana has takwn delivery of its first batch of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines under the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT), a move that was initiated by the African Union (AU).
Ghana received 177,600 single-shot doses of the vaccine at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by a delegation led by Tina Mensah, Deputy Minister of Health, on Saturday, 7th August 2021.
“The Number One priority of the government of Ghana is to build a resilient healthcare system for the people of Ghana,” she said after receiving the vaccines from AVAT representatives.
“In this connection, the Ministry of Health has continuously initiated programmes and projects to improve the delivery of healthcare services.”
The AVAT initiative began distribution of the South Africa-made vaccines on Thursday, 5th August 2021. The first nation to receive them is Togo.
400 million Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines are expected to be delivered to member states of AU; 6.4 million in August and 50 million by December.
Ghana is entitled to 17 million vaccines.
The Africa Medical Supplies Platform in collaboration with UNICEF is providing logistical and delivery services for the distribution of the vaccines to the African nations.
The Johnson & Jonson vaccines are produced by Aspen Pharmacare facility in Gqeberha in South Africa.
Ghana’s Covid-19 mass vaccination began on Tuesday, 2nd March as a result of the reception of the AstraZeneca vaccines from India, but has since stalled due to shortages of the vaccines.
Efforts by government to procure Sputnik V vaccines from Russia could not materialise. An Emirati middleman, Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum, took monies at a unit cost of $19, which is almost double of the factory cost, but backed out of delivering the full consignment.
Ghana has started plans to establish a National Vaccine Institute (NVI) with a seed fund of 25 million for local production of Covid-19 vaccines in future.
Ghana has adminiatered 1,271,393 vaccines so far.
Source: 3news.com
