The Ivory Coast received its first doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine Friday to become the second African nation to get vaccines from the UN-backed COVAX initiative after Ghana, according to UN-affiliated organizations.
A total of “504,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine just arrived in Abidjan. Another step towards #VaccinEquity a symbol of global cooperation solidarity,” WHO African region tweeted.
The batch is the second to be shipped and delivered to the continent by COVAX “to provide at least 2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021,” UNECIF said Friday.“The vaccine doses were received at Abidjan International Airport by Cote d'Ivoire’s Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Dr Eugene Aka Aouele, accompanied by members of the COVAX Facility.”
Ghana received its first batch of the vaccine shipped to Africa from COVAX on Wednesday after 600,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca doses arrived in the capital, Accra .
The COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX, is a global initiative intended to secure equitable access to vaccines and is led by the World Health Organization, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, among others.
