WHO chief Tedros welcomes Covax’s progress.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo has become the first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine under the global Covax scheme, as US health workers prepared to distribute nearly four million doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson jab, AFP reported.

Covax, a scheme designed to ensure poorer countries do not miss out on vaccinations, is aiming to deliver at least two billion jabs by the end of the year.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus welcomed Covax’s progress, AFP repoted.

Akufo-Addo received his AstraZeneca shot live on television along with his wife, while in neighbouring Ivory Coast a presidential spokesman got the country’s first jab, also part of a Covax delivery.

Ivory Coast received some 504,000 doses from Covax, while Ghana got 600,000 that it will start to roll out this week.

“It is important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it, so that everybody in Ghana can feel comfortable,” the president said.

Colombia became the first country in the Americas to receive vaccines through Covax, with President Ivan Duque hailing the day as “a very important milestone.”