A Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been approved in the United Kingdom today, to be distributed next week, according to Sky News.

In doing so, the U.K. has become the first western country to license a vaccine against COVID-19. 

At least 800,000 doses are expected to be available next week out of the 40 million ordered as authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA).

"The government has today accepted the recommendation from the MHRA to approve Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for use. This follows months of rigorous clinical trials and a thorough analysis of the data by experts at the MHRA, who have concluded that the vaccine has met its strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness."

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"The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will shortly also publish its latest advice for the priority groups to receive the vaccine, including care home residents, health and care staff, the elderly and the clinically extremely vulnerable. The vaccine will be made available across the UK from next week." A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman told Sky News.

The question now is, when will a vaccine get to Ghana?

As of November 29, 2020, out of the 205, 368 confirmed cases in West Africa by the ECOWAS Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control, Ghana was second on the list with 51,569 (25.1%) cases and 323 deaths.

COVID19 #ECOWAS DAILY UPDATE for November 29th, 2020. #StaySafe #PreventionActionsKey #Covid19Out #WearYourMask pic.twitter.com/tVx3JXHuL0

— ECOWAS Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (@Ecowas_cdc) December 1, 2020

Although Ghana is also second on the list in terms of recovery rate with a percentage of 97.83, the need for a vaccine in Ghana, and Africa by extension has never been direr.

According to John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Chief, while speaking at the Bloomberg Invest Africa online conference, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the African Union have been in talks with China and Russia to ensure that Africa is not left behind when vaccines become available.

He assured that money to acquire the vaccines will not be a problem because the AFREXIM Bank agreed to finance vaccine procurement with $5 billion and is waiting to see how much it will receive from World Bank’s $12 billion vaccine procurement fund for developing nations.

It has become apparent that with Ghana so high on the list of daily infections, she would be a top priority for vaccine distribution when the vaccines are available in Africa.

According to Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, the presidential advisor on Health, Ghana is on standby to adopt COVID-19 vaccines.

He said that only vaccines that have been tested in manufacturing jurisdictions and approved by global and regional vaccine approving bodies, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), and verified locally to be safe for use, would be adopted.

Dr Nsiah-Asare stated that as part of efforts to ensure that Ghanaians are not left out, the government was in constant talks with the WHO and WAHO.

“What we are looking for is a vaccine that is efficacious, safe and will be accepted by all. We are already aware of the anti-vaccine campaigners and so we are doing our homework well to address all their concerns,” he stated.

So rest assured, the Vaccines will get to Ghana as soon as they are in Africa's reach.