Ghana is expected to receive about one million doses of Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccine to aid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

These vaccines will be delivered in the coming weeks, according to the Ghana Health Service.

The country is the fifth in Africa and 31st in the world to approve the emergency use of the vaccine in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe spoke to Citi News on the arrangement.

“Ghana had an initial allocation of 600,000 and largely most of it has been used. We have vaccinated about 500,000 persons. We have received consignment from MTN and the African Union. We had 50,000 from the Indian government. We are hoping to get about a million of Sputnik within the next few weeks.”

Dr. Asiedu-Bekoe also gave further information on an earlier commitment made by the COVAX Facility for two million vaccines to be delivered to Ghana.

“Ghana is supposed to get 2.4 million vaccines over the period of time. We were supposed to get a total of 2.4 million from the initial consignment. So we had the 600,000 and the plan is that we are going to get the next two million somewhere in May.”

“There is a global shortage of vaccines which is somehow a challenge, but we are still on course to make sure that we get the vaccines in the next few weeks. So we will have a bit of Sputnik and COVAX vaccines. The timelines are not so rigid. So you get it depending on the availability,” he added.

Ghana began its coronavirus vaccination drive on March 2, 2020, with 600,000 AstraZeneca doses it received from the global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility.

So far, close to 500,000 persons have received their first jab, according to the Ghana Health Service.

In all, Ghana has received a little over 800,000 vaccines.

These included 600,000 via the COVAX facility, 50,000 from the Indian government and 165,000 from MTN.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured that the government is on course to purchase some 42 million additional COVID-19 doses by the close of the year.

He says talks are far advanced to get the vaccines into the country.