The German Government yesterday donated 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines to Ghana in support of the fight against the pandemic.

The donation, was in fulfilment of a pledge made by Chancellor Angela Merkel at the recently held G20 summit, to make up to 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available to African countries this year.

The vaccines are the second consignment to be delivered by the German government through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility to Ghana.

Germany initially provided Ghana with 389,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines and this addition, brings to close to two million doses of vaccines received from the Western European country.

The German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, in a brief address to handover the vaccines, thanked health authorities and partners for facilitating the smooth and safe delivery of the package to Ghana.

He expressed the hope that the vaccines would accelerate ongoing efforts at inoculating the populace and building herd immunity against the virus.

Hinting of plans to donate more vaccines in the nearest future, Mr Krull disclosed that Germany was also providing a fully equipped intensive care unit (ICU) for a hospital in Takoradi in the Western Region as well as 45 ventilators and 5,000 pulse oximeters for other selected hospitals across the country.

“We have supported laboratories at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) and the Noguchi Memorial Institute as well as provided personal protective equipment (PPE) including 470,000 face masks and nutritious meals for frontline health workers.

In total, Germany’s bilateral support to Ghana amounts to a value of more than 25 million Euros,” he said.

The Ambassador, underscoring the role of COVAX in helping to vaccinate many people worldwide, to prevent the risk of new mutations of the virus, encouraged the public to avail themselves to being vaccinated to bring life back to normalcy.

A Deputy Minister of Health, Alhaji Mahama Asei Seini, who received the vaccines together with officials from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF, expressed his gratitude to the German government for its continuous support to the country’s health sector.

“We are all aware of the difference your logistical, technical and financial support has made in the management of COVID-19 in Ghana,” he stated.

Alhaji Seini urged citizens to reciprocate the kind gesture by making themselves available to be vaccinated to enable the country attain its planned herd immunity against COVID-19.

Meanwhile, data from the GHS indicates that as of September 23, 2021, a total 777,750 people across the country had been fully vaccinated.