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Ghana received 600,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines on February 24.
On Wednesday, February 27, 2021, Ghana became the First Nation in the world to receive 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The World Health Organization (WHO) global exchange scheme aims to deliver more than 2.3 billion doses by the end of the year, including 1.8 billion to the poorest countries at no cost to their governments.
However, a portion of Ghanaians have wondered why Ghana, a middle-income country, benefited from a program targeting the world’s poorest countries.
Bryan Pearson, who has spent many years editing the Africa Health Journal, a leading medical journal, held the view that Ghana’s reputation for effective vaccine management in the past may have placed it above other countries.
“The question that was asked John Nkengasong, head of the Africa CDC this morning about why Ghana was chosen first, he said: Well, I don’t really know, but someone has to be first, you know? ? That is why it is difficult to know what criteria were used ”.
“I’m sure COVAX is saying who is ready, who is not ready. Because the whole process can be a huge waste of money if not well managed and especially with donations, you want them to go to places that are already well positioned to administer them, and I think Ghana has a pretty good reputation for vaccine management. like polio and they certainly came up with a robust protocol to show they were ready and able to manage the process. “
I suspect they were quite strong in the process, rather than labeling Ghana a developing country, “he added.
GAVI / COVAX program
The first phase, which is the 600 thousand doses received on February 24, 2021, is under the vaccine alliance, GAVI COVAX program
Before the COVID-19 ′ vaccine outbreak in Ghana, it was free under the vaccine alliance, GAVI.
Over the years, the alliance has helped vaccinate nearly half of the world’s children against deadly and debilitating infectious diseases.
Following the Covid -19 outbreak, GAVI formed an alliance called the COVAX Facility, a global initiative that works on equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine to help developing countries, including African nations, acquire vaccines.
To help fund this initiative, countries pledged nearly $ 1 billion to support equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine under the GAVI COVAX AMC.
The UK promised approximately $ 640 million.
This commitment includes £ 1 in matching funds for every US $ 4 committed by others, up to £ 250 million.
This is in addition to the US $ 61 million previously pledged by the UK on June 4, bringing the total contribution to US $ 701 million, while the Canadian government pledged a total amount of US $ 191 million.
The German government also pledged $ 120 million at the World Vaccine Summit as special funds for Gavi to fight COVID-19.
The Italian government, on the other hand, promised a total contribution of $ 102 million, while Sweden pledged approximately $ 12 million.
Phase two
To complement COVAX’s efforts, the African Union has secured 670 million doses of vaccines for the continent, distributed in 2021 and 2022 as countries secure adequate funding.
The African Export-Import Bank will facilitate payments by providing advance purchase commitment guarantees of up to $ 2 billion to COVID vaccine manufacturers on behalf of these countries.
Twenty-six countries have placed orders through this mechanism, and Bryan Pearson said that hopefully there would be an announcement in the next seven days about the countries involved.
“These countries will be announced in the next seven days, but that will be costing people because when you look at the price of vaccines and most of them, you need two injections to be effective. It is a significant cost to the population of 1.3 billion people in Africa.
Unfortunately, COVAX, which was designed primarily to help achieve equitable distribution of vaccines in less affluent countries, was grounded and did not obtain the necessary funds to achieve this goal.
After a while, it became clear that this was not going as expected, which was when the AU itself started talking to various people from the world bank and other groups.
Finally, the African bank Exim’s scheme was introduced to guarantee up to $ 2 billion in initial financing to secure orders. Even so, then the countries themselves had to go in to buy ”.
Phase three
The third phase of the vaccination process will be funded by the government of Ghana.
The total number of vaccines and the cost will depend on how much the country benefits in the first two phases.
Although Ghana expects up to 2.4 million doses under the GAVI COVAX program, the Ghana Health Service says the actual number will depend on market availability.
