Ghana gets 756,000 more doses of Johnson & Johnson single-shot Covid-19 vaccine

The Government has received 756,000 more doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot Covid-19 vaccine under the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).

The delivery brings the total doses received by Ghana so far to 4,060,080 under the AVAT initiative.

The vaccine deliveries are part of the historic COVID-19 vaccine advance procurement agreement signed on 28 March 2021 by AVAT for the purchase of 220 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, with the potential to order an additional 180 million doses.

In total, the 400 million vaccines acquired by AVAT are sufficient to immunise a third of the African population.

Ama Amoah, Senior Specialist Digital & Internal Communications, Communications and Events Afreximbank, said the last batch of the consignment for the year is slated for Monday, December 13, 2021.

She emphasized that the vaccines were acquired by the Ghana government and not a donation.

AVAT was established by the African COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, set up in November 2020 under the African Union chairmanship of President Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa.

It is part of the African Union’s COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Access Strategy, and its goal of vaccinating at least 60 per cent of the African population with safe and efficacious vaccines against COVID-19.

The agreement with Johnson & Johnson was made possible through a US$2 billion facility provided by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), who are also the Financial and Transaction Advisers, Guarantors, Instalment Payment Advisers and Payment Agents, and the support of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) who coordinated the alignment of the AU Ministers of Finance on the financing arrangements.