Johannesburg – President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned that the new Covid-19 variant in the country will have “significant implications for the country’s vaccine rollout programme.
Delivering his state of the nation address, Ramaphosa gave an undertaking that that provinces were ready to administer vaccines.
His sentiments came after the government this week was forced to slam the brakes on the rollout of the 1 million doses of AstraZeneca procured by vaccines after scientists found that it offers minimal protection from mild to moderate infection by the new variant known as 501Y.v2.
“Since this variant is now the dominant variant in our country, these findings have significant implications for the pace, design and sequencing of our vaccine programme,” he said.
“While it should not delay the start of the vaccination programme by much, it will affect the choice of vaccines and the manner of their deployment,” he added.
Also read: SONA2021: We must save lives, Ramaphosa says
The president said the country had procured 9 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson, which will be administered to health care workers for the first phase of the rollout programme.
The first batch of 80,000 doses of Johnson & Johnso will arrive next week while further consignments will touch our shores over the next four weeks, which will bring to the total of 500,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines, Ramaphosa said.
Vaccine manufacturer Pfizer has committed 20 million vaccine doses commencing with deliveries at the end of the first quarter while government has secured secured 12 million vaccine doses from the global COVAX facility, which will be complemented by other vaccines that are available to South Africa through the African Union African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team.
“We are continuing our engagements with all the vaccine manufacturers to ensure that we secure sufficient quantities of vaccines that are suitable to our conditions,” Ramaphosa said.
In a move that was likely to ease the tensions between Ramaphosa and the ANC’s alliance partners, the president announced the extension of some of the relief measures to mitigate against the impact of the global pandemic.
Government has decided to extend the period for the Special COVID-19 grant of R350 by a further three months, Ramaphosa said, adding that the COVID-19 TERS benefit was also extended to until 15 March 2021 for “only those sectors that have not been able to operate.”
He said the National Treasury was going to work with its partners and stakeholders on improvements to the loan guarantee to address the realities of SMMEs and other businesses.
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