President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the First Lady Rebecca Okaikor Akufo-Addo have officially become the first members of the public to be given the 1st dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine locally.
This occurred at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, where the jab was administered to the first family.
This landmark event marked the beginning of the deployment of the 600,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to officially commence from Tuesday March 2 to Monday, March 15, 2021 by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The vaccines made by the Serum Institute of India (Covishield), arrived in Ghana on February 24, 2021.
It will be recalled that last week, the country took delivery of 600,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the WHO coordinated COVAX facility.
It will be deployed in 43 districts which are the epicenters of the pandemic in Ghana.
They are 25 in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area and two in the Kasoa area [Awutu Senya East and West], 16 in the Kumasi Metropolitan Area and Obuasi area.
President AKUFO-Addo prior to taking his jab said it was important for him to set the example to initiate the vaccination process and stressed the need for all to endeavor to do same.
President Akufo-Addo in his address Sunday night said whilst Ghana was initially concentrating on the 43 epicenter districts, preparations are being made for the vaccination of a total of 20 million Ghanaians through the deployment of 12,471 vaccinators, 37,413 volunteers and 2079 supervisors for the entire vaccination campaign.
President Akufo-Addo further encouraged faith based groups, civil society and the media and all Ghanaians to support the public education campaign associated with the exercise as all hands are needed on deck.
By:Isaac Clottey
