The COVAX initiative has shipped 504,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine to Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire.

This makes Côte d’Ivoire the second African country and first French-speaking country to receive vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility, the World Health Organisation says.

COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and WHO. It aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Nigeria’s COVAX vaccine supplies will be on the way soon.

Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this on her official Twitter handle @NOIweala.

She said “Very happy to see first delivery of #COVAX supported vaccines to Ghana. Excited to see more countries following. Nigeria’s supplies should be on its way soon. No trade restrictions or bureaucracy should get in the way.”

In a Twitter post by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa – @WHOAFRO on Friday, the agency said 504,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine just arrived in Abidjan.

It tweeted “Cote d’Ivoire is the second country in #Africa to receive #COVID19 vaccines from the COVAX facility!

“504,000 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine just arrived in Abidjan. Another step towards #VaccinEquity & a symbol of global cooperation & solidarity.

“Cote d’Ivoire will launch its #COVID19 vaccination campaign on Monday 1 March, with frontline health workers and essential staff being among the first to receive them.

“This will make it the first African country to roll out #COVAX-funded vaccines.”

Recall that on Wednesday, Ghana became the recipient of the historic first shipment of COVAX vaccines.

In a statement jointly issued by UNICEF Representative in Ghana, Anne-Claire Dufay; and WHO Representative to Ghana, Dr. Francis Kasolo, it said the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines into Ghana is critical in bringing the pandemic to an end.

“The only way out of this crisis is to ensure that vaccinations are available for all. We thank all partners that are supporting the COVAX Facility to deliver safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to all countries quickly and fairly.

“These 600,000 COVAX vaccines are part of an initial tranche of deliveries of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine licensed to the Serum Institute of India, which represent part of the first wave of COVID vaccines headed to several low and middle-income countries.

“The shipments also represent the beginning of what should be the largest vaccine

procurement and supply operation in history. The COVAX Facility plans to deliver close to two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines this year. This is an unprecedented global effort to make sure all citizens have access to vaccines.

“We are pleased that Ghana has become the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility,” it said.