Ghana to receive 100,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from Israel's one million donation to Africa

The State of Israel has announced a planned donation of one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines to Africa through the COVAX programme. 

Out of the one million doses, Ghana will receive 100,000 doses to support the government’s determination to vaccinate about 20 million of the population by end of 2021.

The Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Shlomit Sufa revealed this.

According to Shlomit Sufa, “this vaccine donation to Africa is the first example we are setting to show the potential of Israel’s cooperation with the African continent which has been strengthened by Israel’s Observer Status at the African Union.”

“This donation is also an example of Israel’s good bilateral relations with Ghana,” she added.

In 2020, the State of Israel through its embassy in Accra supported the Ministry of Health in many ways to fight the COVID 19 pandemic.

The beginning of the pandemic was characterized with an emergency support where about 2000 personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face shields were donated to health facilities.

Israel has a long-term diplomatic and bilateral partnership with Ghana.

Ghana was the first African country to establish diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, the second state in Africa to have an Israeli embassy and the first African state to have a state visit by Israel’s former Foreign Minister Golda Meir in 1958.

In 2011, the State of Israel reopened its Embassy in Accra, which has since strengthened the relations between Israel and Ghana on the level of government-to-government, business to business and people-to-people relations.

On the bilateral level, Israel and Ghana collaborate in sectors such as agriculture, health, Fintech, innovation, Cybersecurity, climate change, entrepreneurship, and water and sanitation.