Ghana is expected to receive over one million Astrazeneca vaccines from Germany and other EU partners.

This forms part of efforts to support the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement issued by the German Embassy on Tuesday, the country is expected to take delivery of 1,037,700 vaccines through the COVAX facility.

“On December 14th, 2021, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Luxemburg and Germany are making available to Ghana 1,037,700 doses of Astrazeneca vaccines against COVID-19 from their respective national allocations via the COVAX facility”, the statement said.

According to the statement, Denmark will be donating 60,000 doses; Estonia with 112,800 doses, Luxemburg with 38,400 doses, Ireland with 276,000 doses, and Germany with a maximum of 550,500 doses.

The donors explained that, “the bilateral assistance to Ghana complements the EU’s and Germany’s contribution to the Access to COVID-19 Tools – Accelerator (ACTA-A) distribution platform, of which Germany is the second-largest donor, providing 2.2 billion Euros while the European Union provided another 1 billion Euros. COVAX is part of ACT-A”.

The statement further indicated that, the donation to Ghana “brings Germany’s total contribution to Ghana to approximately 2.9 million doses of Astrazeneca vaccines”. Ghana is also expected to receive an additional 760,000 doses from Germany next week.

According to the German Embassy, “the shipment will arrive on board flight KLM 0589 on December 14th, 2021, at 19.55 hrs at Accra’s Kotoka International Airport”.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service has indicated its readiness to curb a rise in the number of infections in the upcoming Yuletide festivities.

Speaking on The Probe on Sunday, the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye revealed that, his outfit is prepared to prevent an increase in the number of cases in the country.

According to him, government will partner with the relevant authorities to ensure that all citizens comply with the relevant COVID-19 safety protocols during the Christmas celebrations.

So far, a total of 5,724,634 vaccines have been administered by the Ghana Health Service. Despite this effort, some 1,243 have unfortunately succumbed to the virus.

The GHS explained that the majority of persons who have died as a result of COVID-19 infections in Ghana, are persons with underlying health conditions.