On Mar. 1, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the first COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Africa using COVAX doses had begun in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. These campaigns were the among the first to use doses provided by the COVAX Facility’s Gavi COVAX Advanced Market Commitment (AMC).

The AMC is the COVAX Facility’s mechanism to provide donor-funded vaccines to lower-income countries.

The campaigns in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire follow deliveries to both countries last week with Ghana taking delivery of 600 000 doses on February 24 and Côte d’Ivoire 504 000 doses two days later. Both countries received the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII). The vaccine, branded COVISHIELD, was granted Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the World Health Organization on 15 February.