West African nation Ghana became the first country to receive the first batch of doses coronavirus vaccines from Covax in India.

Covax is a global scheme launched last April to distribute two billion COVID vaccines for free among poorer countries.

"The next phase in the fight against this disease can begin — the ramping up of the largest immunisation campaign in history," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore declared in a statement.

"At last!" World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, whose organisation also backs the Covax initiative, said in a tweet. A day to celebrate, but it's just the first step," he added.

The 600,000 doses delivered to Ghana are the Oxford/AstraZeneca formula, made under license by the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India.