Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday became the first recipient of a Covid vaccine under the global Covax scheme, as US health workers prepared to distribute nearly four million doses of the singleshot Johnson & Johnson jab.
Covax, a scheme to ensure that poorer countries do not miss out on vaccines, is aiming to deliver at least two billion doses by the end of 2021 The drive is using 5,04,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India. Akufo-Addo was inoculated live on TV along with his wife. “It is important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it,” he said. In neighbouring Ivory Coast, a presidential spokesman got the nation’s first jab, also part of a Covax delivery.
In the US, initial deliveries of the newly approved J&J vaccine were to start on Tuesday, officials said, saying they hoped to boost lagging vaccination rates.
Meanwhile, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said global cases rose last week for the first time in seven weeks, calling the rise “disappointing but not surprising”.