Ghana has taken delivery of another 249,600 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government.

The vaccines, which were delivered on Wednesday [August 18, 2021] through the COVAX facility, was received at the Kotoka International Airport by a Deputy Minister of Health, Tina Mensah, a Representative of the UK High Commission, Mr. John Whittle & the UNICEF Representative and other partners.

UNICEF said the donation is to “support the ongoing vaccination campaign.”

The vaccines will be transported to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for storage and subsequent use.

The arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine comes to give a major boost to Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, which slowed down for about two months.

AstraZeneca was the first vaccine to arrive in Ghana earlier this year when the country heightened its efforts to beat COVID-19.

Out of the about 800,000 people to have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, nearly half of the number is yet to get the second jab.

Ghana is already vaccinating a section of the population with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which arrived in the country last month through under the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Trust initiative.

A total of 177,600 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are currently being administered to unvaccinated persons in COVID-19 hotspots in the Greater Accra region and the Ashanti Region.