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Ghana on Wednesday become the first country in the world to receive COVID-19 shots through Covax, the World Health Organization’s global vaccine-sharing initiative aimed at helping ensure a fairer distribution between rich and poor nations.
A flight carrying 600,000 doses of the vaccine developed by drug company AstraZeneca AZN, -0.22% and the University of Oxford, produced by the Serum Institute of India, landed in Ghana’s capital Accra at 7 a.m. GMT, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) said in a joint statement.
Launched last April, Covax, which is also backed by Gavi, known as the Vaccine Alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is designed to ensure all vaccines are shared equitably among all nations. The program is aiming to deliver around 2 billion doses of COVID-19 shots to its members by the end of the year, including 1.8 billion to poorer countries at no cost to their governments.
“This is a momentous occasion, as the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines into Ghana is critical in bringing the pandemic to an end,” said Anne-Claire Dufay of Unicef Ghana and WHO country representative Dr. Francis Kasolo.
“These 600,000 Covax vaccines are part of an initial tranche of deliveries…which represent part of the first wave of COVID vaccines headed to several low and middle-income countries,” they added. Further deliveries to Abidjan, Ivory Coast are expected this week, the WHO said.
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G-7 leaders pledged last week to increase their contribution to the Covax initiative to $7.5 billion, and discussed ways to donate surplus doses. U.S. President Joe Biden promised an extra $4 billion for the program, with $2 billion to be paid immediately.
The new commitments came a day after UN Secretary-General António Guterres slammed the “wildly uneven and unfair” distribution of vaccines, saying just 10 countries had administered 75% of all vaccinations worldwide, leaving 130 countries without a single dose.
The AstraZeneca–Oxford vaccine can be stored at normal refrigeration temperatures, not needing the supercool storage the shot developed by drug company Pfizer PFE, -0.24% and its partner BioNTech BNTX, +1.61% requires, which isn’t readily available in many developing nations.
The WHO recommended the AstraZeneca–Oxford shot for use worldwide for all adults, including the elderly, on Feb. 10.
Ghana, a nation of 30 million people, is among 92 countries that will receive vaccines free through the Covax initiative, and plans to start inoculations on Mar. 2. The West African nation has recorded more than 80,700 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths since the pandemic began.
“The government of Ghana remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians and is making frantic efforts to acquire adequate vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agencies,” said Ghana’s acting minister of information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in a statement.
Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the first deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines through Covax were an “important step” toward the continental goal of immunizing at least 60% of Africa’s population with safe and efficacious vaccines.
The U.K., which has committed £548 million to the Covax program, also welcomed news of the shipment to Ghana. “As one of the biggest donors to Covax, the U.K. is ensuring that more than one billion vaccine doses will be sent to 92 countries so that no one is left behind in this global fight,” said its foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, in a statement.
“We will only save lives and reduce the risk of future infections if we prevent the virus spreading in the world’s developing countries,” he added.
