S’Africa to receive Covid-19 vaccines as death surpasses 29,000

The South African government has indicated that its first doses of Covid-19 vaccines would arrive the country in February.

South Africa is the worst hit country in the African continent as its Covid-19 cases has surpassed one million with over 29,000 fatalities.

“We are targeting February,” the Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize said in a news conference on Sunday.

He, however, stated that before the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccines ongoing negotiations must be concluded with the drug’s makers including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, as well as with Russian and Chinese laboratories.

To finance its vaccine programme, the administration plans to seek help from the private sector as well as from the country’s main health insurers.

Read also: COVID-19 vaccines to arrive Nigeria by end of January – PTF

South Africa is also participating in Covax, the World Health Organisation’s mechanism for global vaccine distribution.

Last week the government paid a deposit of 15.8 million euros to enter Covax, the mechanism for the equitable distribution of vaccines established by the UN World Health Organisation.

But South Africa, by far the worst-hit country in the African continent, does not expect to receive the first vaccine doses under that programme until the second quarter of the year.

“It is clear that the second wave that we are going through is affecting us to levels which are even higher than in the earlier stage,” the minister said.

“The only way to deal with the Covid-19 not only in South Africa but throughout the world is the provision of the immunity through the vaccination,” Mkhize added.

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