Ghana kicks off coronavirus vaccination campaign with COVAX shots

Ghana began its coronavirus vaccination drive on Tuesday with 600,000 AstraZeneca doses it received from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility aimed at providing shots to developing nations to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The start of vaccinations in Ghana, and in neighbouring Ivory Coast on Monday, and the expected delivery of millions of vaccines from the COVAX programme this week will enable more poor countries to start inoculating mostly frontline workers and the most vulnerable, months after wealthier countries began.

COVAX is the programme backed by the World Health Organization and GAVI vaccine alliance to provide vaccines for poor and middle-income countries. It said on Tuesday it aims to deliver 237 million doses of AstraZeneca’s shot to 142 countries by the end of May as it steps up the global roll-out.

Nigeria took delivery of 3.92 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines, while Angola received 624,000 on Tuesday. The Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to also take delivery of COVAX shots later on Tuesday.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo told a news briefing that the West African country aimed to vaccinate 20 million people or over 66% of its population by the end of 2021.

People lined up outside the regional hospital in the capital, Accra, for a first phase of vaccinations which will prioritise frontline health workers and others at high risk.

“I feel so good about taking the vaccine. It will protect me from contracting the virus from patients,” said Bernice Anaglatey, 42, who works in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at Accra’s Ridge Hospital as she queued for her shot.

Ghana was the first country to receive the vaccines under COVAX, which aims to deliver more than 1.3 billion vaccine doses to over 90 low- and middle-income countries by the end of the year, covering up to 20% of their populations.

Only a handful of other African countries have started inoculations, with doses purchased bilaterally or received as donations.

Vaccine deliveries through the COVAX scheme are expected to accelerate this week with 11 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech.

Health authorities are also stepping up efforts to fight conspiracy theories around the vaccines. President Akufo-Addo and his wife were inoculated on Monday in an effort to boost public confidence in the vaccines.

“The stories I heard about the vaccine have put fear in me,” said Isaac Armah, a 28-year-old trader in Accra. “I’ll wait for about two months to see the effects of the vaccine on the early recipients, then I’ll make up my mind.”

Coronavirus infections in Ghana have surpassed 84,000 and more than 600 people have died, according to health ministry data.