The government of Greece has handed over 150,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to Ghana.
Despite the availability of vaccines across the country, the Ghana Health Service has expressed worry about the failure of the public to get vaccinated.
Presenting the vaccines at a brief ceremony, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Greece, Nikolas Dendias said sharing vaccine resources could help countries beat the pandemic.
“As you know, we have already shipped 100,000 doses. This is our contribution to helping Ghana address the COVID-19 pandemic, which is common among all of us. Unless we share the resources of the little, we will not be the best. I hope you will put them to good use.”
Receiving the vaccines on behalf of the government of Ghana, Chief Director at the Ministry of Health, Kwabena Boadu Oku-Afari said the vaccines would help in the ongoing vaccination drive.
“We know that the COVID-19 is not yet gone and a friendly nation like Greece has decided to bring us some vaccines. We know that the pandemic is not all gone in Greece and you are still fighting with it. But you have still decided to come and share what you have with us. We are also on our part trying to bring the pandemic down, and these vaccines will add to the stock that we have to vaccinate the population.”
The government of Ghana has so far received over five million doses of vaccines to aid in the ongoing vaccination against COVID-19 in Ghana.
Over 2.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to 1.3 million Ghanaians.
Ghana is targeting to vaccinate 20 million of its population by end of 2021,
The Presidential Vaccine Manufacturing Committee says Ghana will need $200 million to fully manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana.
The Committee led by Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, said the project will be a private-public partnership arrangement aimed at getting all involved.