The donation by the German Government of 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to Ghana in support of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the German Government yesterday donated 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines to Ghana in support of the fight against the pandemic.
The donation, was in fulfilment of a pledge made by Chancellor Angela Merkel at the recently held G20 summit, to make up to 70 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available to African countries this year.
The vaccines are the second consignment to be delivered by the German government through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility to Ghana.
Germany initially provided Ghana with 389,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines and this addition, brings to close to two million doses of vaccines received from the Western European country.
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, in a brief address to handover the vaccines, thanked health authorities and partners for facilitating the smooth and safe delivery of the package to Ghana.
He expressed the hope that the vaccines would accelerate ongoing efforts at inoculating the populace and building herd immunity against the virus.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched a five-year Project Package of Essential Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) Interventions (PEN) aimed at addressing the spate of NCDs in the country.
The project, in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) would empower prescribers and allied health workers on NCD screening, early detection, appropriate management and timely referrals to save patients.
Supported by the Norwegian government, the project is a set of simplified, cost effective strategies for Primary Health Care (PHC) in low resource settings which Ghana is a part of.
Speaking at the launch in Accra on Friday, The Director of Public Health-GHS, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe said globally, NCDs had been recognised as a huge burden to public health and in Ghana these disease conditions continued to increase among the top 10 causes of hospital admissions and deaths.
“These conditions are driven largely by risk factors such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol and tobacco use, as well as air pollution, which abound in the country,” he added.
He said to address NCDs, it was essential to adopt diverse and innovative strategies, especially in the phase of global pandemic and limited resources for health, and Ghana was fortunate to benefit from the support.
“I am particularly glad that this support is being provided at this crucial moment in healthcare where health services are burdened with infectious diseases, maternal newborn and child health diseases and more recently COVID-19,” he stated.
The Graphic reports that the Preventive and the Counter Terrorism units of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) seized some arms and ammunition at the Golden Jubilee Terminal at the Tema Port last Thursday.
The items — nine side arms (pistols), eight assault rifles and 219 pieces of live ammunition — were discovered during physical examination of a 40-footer container meant for house-to-house delivery.
The container was supposed to be holding personal belongings, often listed as clothing, shoes, home accessories, television sets, among others, imported from the United States into the country.
The examination team, during the joint exercise, also found 81 pieces of live ammunition, two handcuffs, three binoculars, as well as their associated cleaning kits, a seizure notice on the items sighted by the Daily Graphic indicated.
Highly placed sources at the Customs Division told the Daily Graphic that the concealment meant that the items were restricted and, therefore, subjected to outright seizure to allow for further investigations.
The importers, the sources said, had no permit from the Ministry of Interior and so the items were not declared in the customs documentation covering the other items, including a car that was in the said container on arrival.
They said while the identity of the owners was not readily known, one Ebenezer Mireku Kissi was listed as consignee, with Tobitek Agency as the clearing agents.
The newspaper says that Vodafone Group Plc and ITU, the United Nations’ specialised agency for information and communication technologies, has launched an initiative to address the global digital divide.
The initiative aims that an additional 3.4 billion people could have the ability to access and use the internet through a smartphone by 2030.
In a release issued by Vodafone Ghana on Monday, it said with mobile broadband (4G) networks now covering 82 per cent of the population of Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), the mobile usage gap is six times larger than the mobile coverage gap.
It said in line with the Broadband Commission Global Targets 2025 on affordability and connectivity, the new Working Group will identify policy, commercial and circular-economy interventions to increase smartphone access.
Co-chaired by Vodafone Group CEO, Nick Read, and ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, the Group’s launch partners also include: the Alliance for Affordable Internet; GSMA; the government of Ghana; Safaricom; Smart Africa; Vodacom Group; and the World Wide Web Foundation.
“Mobile accounts for 86 per cent of connections to the internet in LMICs, emphasising the importance of mobile in addressing this issue. Yet billions of people continue to use ‘dumb’ feature phones, without an internet connection, and the 2G market continues to grow.
“That means the digital divide is widening as the global pandemic has accelerated the emergence of digital societies and smartphones are increasingly an essential gateway to access public services – including education and medical support – financial services, jobs and to run businesses,” the release said.
The Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, said: “While Ghana and other countries have made great strides in the development of mobile infrastructure and the usage of digital services such as mobile money, it is noticeable that 45 per cent of people in West Africa are covered by mobile broadband networks but do not use the internet.
“Addressing the mobile internet usage gap is vital for the long-term economic development of my country and many others across the world and will require new partnerships and focused action from a range of organisations.”
GIK/APA