The distribution of the newly arrived COVID-19 vaccines doses is expected to take off next week, Presidential Adviser on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare has said.
600,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India arrived in the country on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.
Dr. Nsiah on the Point of View on Citi TV said persons with underlying conditions, health workers and essential services providers will be part of the groups who will take doses of the vaccines.
“The deployment [of vaccines] will take place next week. We have segmented the country by populations and this is according to what the Ghana Health Service has done. Health workers are one of the groups [that will take the vaccines] because they are frontline workers. And there are patients who have underlying problems and also the aged.”
He also allayed fears over the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine, despite South Africa’s decision to put its rollout on hold after a study showed “disappointing” results against the country’s new COVID-19 variant.
“The predominant variant that we have seen is the UK variant which is very susceptible to the AstraZeneca vaccine, so we do not have the problem that South Africa has.”
The COVAX Facility plans to deliver close to 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year.
The AstraZeneca vaccines will be deployed to designated health facilities in Ghana from March 2.
The areas earmarked for the initial vaccine rollout are the Greater Accra Metro including Awutu Senya and Awutu Senya East in the Central Region.
A similar segmented population in the Greater Kumasi Metro and Obuasi municipality will also be covered, according to a statement from the Information Ministry.
