Ghana has recorded 65 new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing the total number of active cases to 1,600 as of Wednesday, May 5, 2021.

The total cumulative case count stands at 92,951.

An update from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), indicates that four more persons have succumbed to the disease bringing the death toll to 783.

The number of persons who have recovered or been discharged from the illness is now 90,568 with 24 persons in severe condition and 6 others in critical condition.

Main breakdown

Also, out of 249,444 tests conducted on international travellers who arrived in the country, 1,657 persons tested positive.

The country has vaccinated about 850,000 persons with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

Currently, all 16 regions have an active case.

The Greater Accra Region remains the hotspot having 949 active cases with a cumulative case count of 51,182.

Vaccines

Ghana took delivery of 350,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines on Friday, May 7, 2021, in Accra.

The vaccines were aboard a Turkish Airline flight to kick-start the second phase of the nationwide vaccination.

The Programme Manager, Expanded Programme on Immunisation of the GHS, Dr Amponsa-Achiano said the vaccines were part of the consignment that was delivered to the Democratic Republic of Congo but were not used.

“The 350,000 doses of vaccines are an addition to the 600,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine received on February 24, this year,” he said.

Ghana became the first country to receive doses of vaccines from the COVAX facility which has 92 beneficiary countries signed onto it.

According to Dr Amponsa-Achiano, the donors realized that the DRC had a lot of vaccines and that if it continued to go the pace at which it was going, the vaccines would expire.

“So we are picking these vaccines from the DRC because they are not using them.

“We still have a lot of time, the vaccines would expire at the end of June. We have the whole of May and the whole of June, so we can use them and they are safe for usage,” he said.