South Africa welcomes first delivery of Covid-19 vaccines

South Africa gave a hero’s welcome Monday to the delivery of its first Covid-19 vaccines — 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa greeted the crates of vaccine that arrived at Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport, which will be followed up later this month by another 500,000 doses of the vaccine.

The vaccine will be effective in preventing severe disease and death from the variant that has become dominant in South Africa, a vaccine expert says.