The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana as a historic step towards equitable distribution of the vaccines globally.

The COVAX Facility on 23 February delivered 600 000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to Ghana, making it the first African country to receive the vaccines.

Cote d’Ivoire is expecting its first allocation on 26 February. Another 24 countries are set to receive vaccines through COVAX in the next two weeks, WHO said in a statement.

The first round of allocations for doses of AstraZeneca/Oxford and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to more countries and economies participating in the COVAX Facility are expected to be published in coming days in what will be the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history.

“The roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines is an incredible, much-awaited leap forward for African countries that have spent months preparing while wealthy countries race ahead with vaccination. COVAX is a global expression of equity and it cannot be stressed enough that to end the pandemic all countries must move forward with vaccination together.

No country is safe until all countries are safe,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa said in the statement.

COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers, UNICEF, the World Bank, and others.

It is the only global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher-income and lower-income countries.

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