Ghana receives largest shipment of 1.2m Moderna COVID-19 vaccines donated by US

Ghana has received on Saturday the largest shipment of COVID-19 vaccines yet – donated by the US Government as part of the COVAX facility.

Ghana took delivery of 1,229,620 doses of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines from the US government.

The much awaited consignment of COVID-19 vaccines arrived at the Kotoka international Airport on board an extra-large United Airline Dreamliner plane on 4 September 2021.

The shipment was due to arrive in Ghana last Saturday (28 August 2021) but the truck transporting the vaccines got involved in an accident in West Virginia and that meant that the stock had to be replaced.

Ghana started her COVID-19 vaccination programme in March 2021 with the AstraZeneca vaccines. Due to the global shortage of vaccines, the vaccination programme could not continue as planned.

The plan of the Akufo-Addo administration is to vaccinate the entire adult population of Ghana which is estimated to be about 20 million, by the end of 2021.

Vaccine Inflows

The country’s vaccination programme has received renewed energy with the inflow of several vaccines such as the 249,600 AstraZeneca vaccines received from the COVAX initiative, 1.5 million AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the German government.

Additionally, 244,800 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have also been received through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) mechanism established by the African Union and supported by the World Bank, bring the total Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines Ghana has received to 422,400 through AVAT and other sources.

As part of the COVAX initiative, Ghana is expected to receive over one million, three hundred thousand (1,300,000) Pfizer vaccines as her share of vaccines donated by the United States government to Africa.

COVID-19 Situation

According to Ghana’s COVID-19 dashboard, www.ghs.gov.gh/covid19, the country’s active cases now stand at 6,940 after 449 new coronavirus cases were added to the national tally over the reporting period.

As at 30 August 2021, the GHS reports that the country’s total confirmed cases stand at 120,452 out of which 112,460 have recovered.

147 persons are in severe condition while 60 remain critical, according to GHS. Cases detected at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) are 2,668 with 2,521 recoveries.

Regional Cases Recorded

The regional representation of the total number of cases recorded in Ghana are; Greater Accra Region – 64,720, Ashanti Region – 20,164, Western Region – 6,756, Eastern Region – 6,081, Volta Region – 4,510 and Central Region – 4,259.

The rest are Bono East Region – 2,411, Bono Region – 2,046, Northern Region – 1,704, Upper East Region – 1,370, Ahafo Region – 1,030, Western North Region – 956, Oti Region – 759, Upper West Region – 575 and North East Region – 256.

Source: Daily Mail GH