Ghana has received the first vaccines shipped through the global vaccine-sharing initiative, BBC News reports.
The COVAX Global Vaccines Facility, led by the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and Gavi aims to ensure equitable global sharing of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and to deliver about 2 billion vaccine doses around the world by the end of 2021. The effort has run into some difficulties, with wealthier nations, for instance, having secured vaccine doses directly with producers rather than through the program and with transparency concerns.
According to the BBC, 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca and Oxford University's vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India, have arrived in Accra. It adds that vaccinations are to begin next week with priority given to healthcare workers, people over the age of 60, and others with certain health conditions.
"We will not end the pandemic anywhere unless we end it everywhere," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General, says in a statement.
The WHO adds that another shipment is to arrive in Cote d'Ivoire this week.