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Head of the Department of the Department of Disease Surveillance (DSD) at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Franklin Asiedu Bekoe revealed that Ghana would receive around 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this week.
According to Dr Bekoe, the 500,000 doses are part of the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine that Ghana has yet to receive.
“If you look at the COVAX facility, Ghana is supposed to receive 6 million [doses] and then for the initial start up we get 2.4 million. It is therefore the first batch of 2.4 million that is coming. And it’s purely the Oxford-AstraZeneca. “
Dr Bekoe is hopeful that the vaccinations will begin in the first week of March and that vaccine rollout would not be a challenge due to his need for cold temperatures.
As for how vaccines will be deployed, Dr Bekoe revealed that this will be done by looking at the population in various segments based on their geographic location, people with health conditions among others.
“We look at health workers, we look at people with underlying illnesses, we look at people who are 60 years old, then the arms of government, essential workers. So this is the segmented population that we want to start for now. “
Dr Bekoe said that with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the first dose is not supposed to be given within 3 weeks of the first dose, adding that it can be given between 8 and 12 weeks after the first dose.
Thus, around 400,000 Ghanaians will be vaccinated during the first deployment, with the second dose being administered in March, when the second dose of the vaccine is expected to arrive.
“… If you look at the current regiment, they say you don’t give less than 3 weeks. We can therefore give between 8 and 12 weeks.
“For our initial allocation, we’re going to give it all, minus the 5% load factor, so in this case we’re going to vaccinate over 400,000 people and then we’ll ask others to add,” he said. . “
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