Greece donates 150,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to Ghana
Inflows of COVID-19 vaccine donations to Ghana have peaked with Greece being the latest country to part with 150,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.
This is aimed at boosting Ghana’s vaccination programme across the country in order to hit herd immunity.
It is the second donation within the week after the US government donated Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines.
The country is racing against time to meet its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2021.
So far 3.5million doses of vaccines have been administered across the country with 842, 000 people being fully vaccinated.
The vaccines were handed over to the government by Greece Foreign Minister Nikolaos Dendias on Thursday, November 25.
He acknowledged that the COVID-19 fight was a shared responsibility across the world hence the need for countries to share resources.
He was optimistic that the vaccines will be put to good use.
Receiving the package on behalf of the government was the Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, Kwabla Boadu Oku Afari.
He encouraged residents to get vaccinated to help control the infection in the country.
“We are also putting in much efforts to ensure that more people get vaccinated in order to attain herd immunity and these vaccines will add up to the stock that we have already,” he said. “there are enough vaccines to vaccinate everyone; we all need to get vaccinated to protect ourselves and avoid vaccine wastage.”
Meanwhile, the country has also received some 1.2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines purchased by the government.
The arrival of the vaccine brings the number of Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses procured by the government to 1,622,000 doses.
US donation
The MoH took delivery of more than 1.7 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine donated by the US government.
The package increased the total of US donated Covid-19 vaccines to Ghana to more than 4.2 million doses since September 2021.
Delivered through COVAX, the donations were part of the global efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Presenting the vaccines, Madam Stephanie Sullivan, the US Ambassador to Ghana, said the vaccines donated to Ghana on behalf of the American people, would help save lives.
“These doses are the same safe and effective vaccines used in the United States, there is no better time for Ghanaians to protect their families and communities by getting the jab,” she said.
She continued: “We don’t do this work alone. We work closely with UNICEF, which is the engine behind COVAX, the Ministry of Health, and the Ghana Health Service to transport these vaccines quickly and efficiently and ensure that they are used for the benefit of all Ghanaians.
“Now it’s up to Ghanaians to get their jabs. We were all happy to see the news over the weekend that the Ghana Health Service has approved the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 15 and above. Getting the COVID-19 vaccine can be the first step in building back a better world, one which prioritizes public health and economic prosperity, and shares the fruits of scientific innovation”.