How Ghana became the first in Africa to receive COVAX vaccines - Nsiah-Asare explains

When Ghana took stock of the first 600,000 doses of the COVAX AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine from India, making it the first African country to receive the free vaccines, many wondered what made the country so special in that regard.

In offering the clearest explanation on the subject, the Presidential Adviser on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, said that Ghana's track record of immunization was mainly the reason.

He explained, while speaking on Newsfile on the JoyNews channel, that Ghana's maintains an enviable and robust immunization process and this was what formed the decision to make it the first to receive the doses on the continent.

This is an assertion he said was corroborated by the UNICEF.

"We are one of the highest outtakes of immunization in the whole world... we are immunization 93% of children. The children in this country are taking about 13 different vaccines and Ghana has decentralized our immunization system and we are actively immunizing people, we have the logistics and we have a robust system in place and this is the reason why, and I heard the UNICEF Chief Executive saying that that is one of the reasons why they chose Ghana to be the first to get the COVAX," he said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) described the arrival of the coronavirus vaccines in Ghana as a historic step towards equitable distribution of the vaccines globally.

The COVAX Facility on 23 February delivered 600 000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to Ghana, making it the first African country to receive the vaccines.