Health workers, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary, and some religious leaders are among the first category of people who will receive the newly arrived Covid-19 vaccine.

A statement by the Information Minister-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated that Ghana is to begin the Covid-19 vaccination on March 2.

Ghana on Wednesday received an initial tranche of deliveries of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine at the Kotoka International Airport.

The first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccines from Covax, a World Health Organization-backed effort to procure and distribute inoculations for free to poor countries.

“These 600,000 Covax vaccines are part of an initial tranche of deliveries of the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine licensed to the Serum Institute of India, which represent part of the first wave of Covid vaccines headed to several low and middle-income countries,” said UNICEF, which organised the shipment from Mumbai, in a joint statement with the WHO.

According to Oppong-Nkrumah, remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians and is making frantic efforts to acquire adequate vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agencies.

Below is the full statement:

The Government of Ghana is taking delivery of 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield), today, February 24, 2021.

This is the first consignment of vaccines acquired through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) which Ghana, among 92 countries, has signed unto.

COVID-19 vaccination will be conducted in phases among segmented populations. The first segment of the population that will receive from the 600,000 doses will be health workers, adults 60 years and over, people with underlying health conditions, frontline executive, legislature, judiciary, and their related staff, frontline security personnel, some religious leaders, essential workers, teachers and other personalities in Greater Accra Metro including Awutu Senya and Awutu Senya East in the Central Region. A similar segmented population in the Greater Kumasi Metro and Obuasi municipality will also be covered.

From 2nd March, the COVID-19 vaccines will be deployed in health facilities and designated centers in these geographical regions.

The Government of Ghana remains resolute at ensuring the welfare of all Ghanaians and is making frantic efforts to acquire adequate vaccines to cover the entire population through bilateral and multilateral agencies. We urge you to do your part by ensuring that you get vaccinated when the vaccine gets to you.

We acknowledge the hard work of the technical teams from the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Information, the COVID-19 Task Force and all those who have assisted in getting us this far. Our Development Partners are also acknowledged for their tremendous financial and technical support. It is our hope that they will continue to support us in our sustained efforts in combating this virus and putting COVID-19 behind us.`