Ghana to receive over 1M doses of Sputnik V vaccine

ABUJA, Nigeria

Ghana expects to receive 1.3 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine on May 15, the country's president said Sunday.

"So we can hope to return our country, economy and life to the normalcy we all desire," said Nana Akufo-Addo.

Akufo-Addo underscored the importance of wearing masks against the virus.

Ghana became the first African country to receive COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility with some 600,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca doses.

On March 1, the country kicked off a COVID-19 vaccination campaign with vaccines from the COVAX initiative.

COVAX is co-led by the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It aims to accelerate the development and production of COVID-19 vaccines and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

So far, Ghana has confirmed 779 COVID-related deaths, 92,601 infections and 90,248 recoveries, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan in Istanbul