India sends first COVID-19 vaccine shipment to Africa under COVAX programme

Di authorities say di first groups of pipo wey dem go begin vaccinate na health workers, pipo wey dey 60 year and ova, pipo wey gt underlying health problem, frontline executive, members of parliament, judiciary and dia staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers plus oda personalities for di Greater Accra Metro including Awutu, Senya and Awutu Senya East for di Central Region.

By providing no-fault lump-sum compensation in full and final settlement of any claims, the program aims to significantly reduce the need for recourse to the law courts, a potentially lengthy and costly process, it said.

Ninety-two low and middle-income economies would be eligible for the program via Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi) Covax Advance Market Commitment (AMC), including Vietnam.

In total, Serum Institute will deliver 240 million doses to various low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and India, under Covax by June at an agreed price of $3 per dose which will be borne by the facility's dedicated fund.

Approximately 600,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have arrived in Ghana this morning.

Vietnam has recorded 2,395 Covid-19 cases, with 639 active.

Ghana, a West African nation of 30 million people, has recorded 81,245 cases and 584 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

And Russia has offered to supply 300 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine to the AU scheme along with a financing package.

The continent, relatively spared by the pandemic, was the last except Oceania to reach the threshold of 100,000 deaths, which Europe crossed in April 2020.

World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said some rich countries' direct deals with manufacturers had meant that previously-agreed vaccine allocations for poorer countries, via the Covax programme, were being reduced.

Last week, its vaccine team said 270 million doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines secured for delivery this year had been taken up.

The WHO on Monday blasted wealthy countries for hogging Covid vaccines and hindering the pathway for poorer nations to get them too.

New variants of the virus, including in neighbouring Nigeria, are spreading across the continent with the United Kingdom and South African variants recorded in cases in Ghana.