The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has announced the registration of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Ghana.
The vaccine was approved under the Emergency Use Authorization procedure - a pathway that ensures that a needed medical product or vaccines are made available on time without compromising on its safety or efficacy during health emergencies.
A statement made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra on Saturday, said Ghana was the 31st country in the world and the 5th State of Africa to register for the Sputnik V vaccine.
Sputnik V is one of the world's top three coronavirus vaccines in terms of the number of approvals issued by government regulators.
It has been approved in Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua.
The Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Gabon and San Marino Kirill Dmitriev, have also approved the vaccine.
The statement said the Ministry of Health had thoroughly reviewed the data on the safety and efficacy of the Sputnik V vaccine and approved its usage.
The efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6 per cent as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals.
The vaccine is one of the only three vaccines in the world with an efficacy of over 90 per cent and provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19.
The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.