President Akufo-Addo says the committee advising on COVID-19 vaccines has finished its work.

Speaking earlier on Tuesday at the 72nd Annual New Year School and Conference in Accra, President Akufo-Addo said the government would now be able to begin engaging vaccine-manufacturing companies.

“The Committee formed by the government to recommend the appropriate decision on COVID-19 vaccines has completed its work, enabling government to begin discussions with vaccine-manufacturing companies with the goal of ordering the suitable doses of the vaccine for use in Ghana,” the President said.

“Details of this will be announced very soon,” he added.

The President’s Representative at the Information Ministry, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has also revealed that a vaccine roll-out plan for Ghana is expected to be ready within a week.

Government officials in the health sector have projected that Ghana will take delivery of the first batch of vaccines for coronavirus by the end of the first quarter of this year.

Ghana is among the 172 economies that are engaged in discussions to potentially participate in COVAX, a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved.

COVAX is currently known to have the world’s largest and most diverse COVID-19 vaccine portfolio with nine candidate vaccines and further nine under evaluation.

A provisional 270 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been secured by the African Union for distribution across the continent.

This is in addition to the 600 million doses already promised the continent.

In the meantime, the Food and Drugs Authority has cautioned that it yet to purchase any COVID-19 vaccine.