Ghana Becomes First Country To Receive Free COVAX Vaccines | NOW

Ghana is the first country in the world to receive a free supply of corona vaccines from the COVAX program of the WHO health organization. The country will receive 600,000 doses of the drug from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, it makes UNICEF Wednesday announced.

More than 30 million people live in Ghana. With the 600,000 doses, 300,000 people can be provided with the necessary two injections for maximum protection against the virus.

In the West African country, 80,000 infections with the virus have been identified and 580 corona-related deaths have been recorded.

The WHO COVAX program is designed to help countries that are struggling to buy corona vaccines themselves. Many rich countries and the European Union buy up almost all the vaccines that come onto the market. The WHO hopes to have delivered two billion doses worldwide by the end of the year.

Rich countries ‘hoard’ billions of vaccines

Rich countries have jointly ordered more than a billion corona vaccines than is necessary to vaccinate all their inhabitants, it emerged on Friday. research of the anti-poverty organization ONE. As a result, the poorer countries will have to wait longer before they can also vaccinate their population and the pandemic will last longer, the organization warns.

ONE wants countries to make their surpluses available via COVAX. This also gives residents of less wealthy countries access to a vaccine.

The Netherlands also expects to receive too many vaccine doses: more than 84.5 million. It is unclear what will happen to any surplus, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health told NU.nl on Wednesday.

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