President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will receive the first dose of the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines which arrived in Ghana on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.

“President Akufo-Addo will be the first to be vaccinated,” Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, Presidential Advisor on Health, disclosed.

According to Dr Nsiah-Asare, the move to have the President take the first jab of the vaccines “is to assure Ghanaians that the vaccines are safe and any other reactions like headache, dizziness, or pains are all usual with every vaccination”.

With Ghana recording more than 80,000 cases and over 580 deaths on account of the virus, the Presidential Advisor on Health noted that it would be in the interest of the country, for Ghanaians to avail themselves to be vaccinated when that opportunity came.

“We encourage everyone to avail him or herself of the opportunity to be vaccinated. It is safe, and we want other Ghanaians abroad to also put out their videos to encourage others in Ghana”.

Ghana received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines through a UN-backed global vaccine-sharing scheme, COVAX, as part of efforts to enable equitable access to the jabs by low and middle-income countries.

The consignment, which arrived at the Kotoka International Airport, consisted of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines, which are expected to be administered first to frontline health workers, and high-risk persons and people over 60 years, to slow the progression of the disease.

The vaccines were produced by the Serum Institute of India.