The Ministry of Health has received 165,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine from the African Union’s (AU’s) Covid-19 vaccination programme, supported by MTN.
The vaccine which arrived in the country a few days ago was through the generous donation of US$25-million by telecom giant MTN to make the Covid-19 vaccine accessible to African countries.
The consignment was received at the Kotoka International Airport by the Chairperson of the Health Commodities Group for Covid-19, Dr Mathew Kyeremeh, who expressed his gratitude to MTN and said the vaccine was going to be administered to people with underlying health conditions and frontline workers.
Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, said the government was excited and grateful to be receiving her share of the first one million doses as part of the AU’s accelerated vaccine programme.
He said while they were still in the early stages of the vaccine race, this initial contribution offers some very welcome relief countries are beginning to see the benefit of the dedicated healthcare workers.
In a statement signed by Corporate Services Executive of MTN, Samuel Koranteng, MTN recalled it commitment in January 2021 to accelerate the AU’s critical programme to secure up to seven million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to be spread across the 55 AU Member States for healthcare workers.
“While the facilitation of the vaccination programme is in the hands of the Africa CDC and the African Union Vaccination Acquisition Task Team, MTN is encouraged to see a clear plan and strong, accelerated move towards keeping Africa and its people safe and healthy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure that Ghana and Africa as a whole, is not left behind,” Selorm Adadevoh, CEO of MTN Ghana has said.
“As a company that is committed to the prosperity and progress of Ghana and indeed the continent, for MTN’s part, we are proud to be able to make a humble contribution to the millions of vaccine doses needed to reach herd immunity,” he added.
He called on large corporate organizations across various sectors, to play their part by contributing to this and similar initiatives that can fast-track the rollout of much-needed vaccines to help get the virus under control.
Following the outbreak of Coronavirus in Ghana, the MTN Ghana Foundation has supported Ghanaians with some major interventions to lessen the impact of the pandemic.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri