Covax: Ghana becomes first country to receive shared vaccines

Image source, Unicef Ghana

Image caption, The WHO and Unicef said the delivery was a momentous occasion

Ghana has become the first country to receive coronavirus vaccines through a global vaccine-sharing plan.

The plan is run through the World Health Organisation and it's called Covax.

The Covax plan aims to close the divide between rich countries and poorer nations unable to buy doses.

Ghana has received a delivery of 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the first recipients of the doses are expected to be healthcare workers.

The programme is planning to deliver about two billion vaccine doses globally by the end of the year.

Ghana was chosen as the first place to get the vaccines because its government promised to distribute the jabs very quickly.

The vaccinations are expected to start next week and, as well as the health workers, people over 60 with health conditions are expected to be prioritised.

Lots of the rich countries in the world have been criticised for buying and ordering more vaccines than they need.

A lot of the ordering was done before these countries knew whether the vaccine development would be successful.

Image source, Reuters

The UK government, which has ordered over 400 million vaccines, has said it will donate its leftover supply to poorer countries.

The Covax plan hopes to deliver more than two billion doses of vaccine to people in 190 countries in less than a year.

In particular, it wants to ensure 92 poorer countries will receive access to vaccines at the same time as 98 wealthier countries.

However, it was faced criticism because, even if the Covax plan works, it's only designed to cover 20% of each nation's population.

This is far less than what's expected in richer countries, like the UK.