• World
  • Feb 25

Ghana becomes first nation to get free COVID-19 vaccines under COVAX plan

• The World Health Organisation’s global vaccine-sharing scheme COVAX delivered its first COVID-19 shots on February 24.

• A flight carrying 6 lakh doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India landed in Ghana’s capital Accra.

• The vaccines, delivered by UNICEF, are part of the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines being sent by COVAX, an international cooperative programme formed to make sure low and middle-income countries have fair access to COVID-19 vaccines. 

• The delivery comes months after the launch of the COVAX initiative, aimed at pooling funds from wealthier countries and non-profits to distribute vaccines equitably around the world.

• The West African nation of 30 million has recorded 81,245 cases and 584 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to figures from Ghana’s Health Services. 

• Ghana’s vaccination campaign will begin March 2 and will be conducted in phases among prioritised groups, beginning with health workers, adults of 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary, and their related staff.

• The African Union (AU) has been trying to help its 55 member states buy more doses in a push to immunize 60 per cent of the continent’s 1.3 billion people over three years. 

What is COVAX?

COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, UNICEF, the World Bank and others. 

COVAX was launched to try to prevent poorer countries being pushed to the back of the queue as wealthier nations bought billions of doses for their populations.

It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.

COVAX has built a diverse portfolio of vaccines suitable for a range of settings and populations, and is on track to meet its goal of delivering at least two billion doses of vaccine to participating countries around the globe in 2021.

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil organisations, launched at Davos in 2017, to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics. CEPI has moved with great urgency and in coordination with WHO in response to the emergence of COVID-19. CEPI has initiated ten partnerships to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The programmes are leveraging rapid response platforms already supported by CEPI as well as new partnerships.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 822 million children – and prevented more than 14 million deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 developing countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningitis and yellow fever vaccines.

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