President Nana Akufo-Addo has joined other world leaders in signing the UNAIDS Public Letter on People’s Vaccine, a campaign calling for the COVID-19 vaccine to become accessible to all when developed.
According to the President, this will ensure that all people everywhere get access to the vaccine once it is outdoored.
Other signatories of the letter include Maky Sall, President of Senegal, and Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan.
Some persons have expressed concerns over people in rich countries having quicker access to the vaccine than those in poor countries.
The world leaders thus argued in the open letter that any vaccine against COVID-19 should be free and made accessible at no cost to people everywhere.
“Governments and international partners must unite around a global guarantee which ensures that, when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge. The same applies to all treatments, diagnostics, and other technologies for COVID-19,” the letter said.
The letter follows a call by vaccine producers for various governments to invest billions of dollars in large scale production of vaccines.
Worldwide tests
Currently, some more than 100 experimental COVID-19 vaccines are being developed.
In the UK, trials on more than 1,000 human volunteers are taking place through the University of Oxford.
The BBC recently reported that a vaccine against coronavirus appears to have provided protection against Covid-19 in six rhesus macaque monkeys.
Recoveries
Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service on Saturday, May 16 2020, confirmed that the number of COVID-19 recoveries in Ghana has shot up to 1,754.
Meanwhile, some 97 more people have tested positive for the virus.
This brings to 5,735 the total number of people who have tested positive for the virus in the country, as at Saturday
One more person, who tested positive for the virus, has also died, bringing to 29 the total number of coronavirus related deaths in the country.