The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, has expressed delight that the first doses of the vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India has been delivered.

Ghana became the first African country on Wednesday, February 24 to take the delivery of 600,000 doses of the vaccines.

In an email sent to our editor, Mr Soriot stated: “I am delighted that the first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been delivered to Ghana through COVAX.”

He added: “This marks a major step forward in changing the course of the pandemic globally.”

Ghana has already won praise from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF for being the first country to receive the COVAX vaccines.

Based in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries.

As a result, the vaccines are expected to be made available to all the countries.

“From the start, we have committed to making our vaccine available to as many countries as possible and at no profit during the pandemic because no-one is safe until everyone is safe,” Mr Soriot stated.

“This delivery is the first of many shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine expected over the coming weeks and months via COVAX that will take us closer to ensuring broad and equitable access.”

Ghana is expected to deploy the vaccines from Tuesday, March 2 with the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to be the first to be vaccinated.