ACCRA, March 6, (Xinhua/GNA) – The government of Ghana on Friday took delivery of 50,000 more COVID-19 vaccines from India, authorities said.
Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey who received the donation said the government was committed in its quest to acquiring the vaccines to inoculate 20 million of the population.
She said that “permit me to use this medium to assure the Ghanaian people that the president of the republic and his government are leaving no stone unturned in the quest to acquire, at least, 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to effectively inoculate the population. Indeed, we are resolute in our determination and will utilize both bilateral and multilateral arrangements to attain this objective.”
The Minister commended the government of India for its assistance to Ghana in the fight against the pandemic.
“The new doses are a “noteworthy support to our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and reflect the very cordial and fraternal relations between Ghana and India,” she added.
Ghana has so far received 650,000 doses of vaccines for the COVID-19 fight. The first batch of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines from the COVAX facility arrived in Ghana on February 24, making it the first country in the world to receive them.
Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 24 COVID-19 updates on February 28, emphasised the country’s Food and Drugs Authority was in the process of certifying more vaccines for use in the country although two main vaccines AstraZeneca and Sputnik-V have been approved so far.
Meanwhile, the country began mass inoculation of the people against the pandemic on March 2 and is expected to continue till October.
GNA