Johannesburg – South Africa’s health minister, Dr Zwelini Mkhize has announced that South Africa will be receiving one million vaccines in January.
Mkhize stated that the department will prioritise the protection of SA’s health workers by ensuring that they receive the vaccine by February 2021.
“Today, I am pleased to announce that the Serum Institute of India (SII) has given us permission to make a public announcement and start engaging with all relevant stakeholders in preparation for the roll out. In our presentation, we also stated that as a country, we have estimated 1.25 million health care workers both from public and private to be prioritised. It is for this reason that today we announce that South Africa will be receiving 1 000 000 (one million) doses in January and 500 000 (five hundred thousand) doses in February from the SII,” Mkhize said.
“South Africa will be receiving 1 000 000 (one million) doses in January and 500 000 (five hundred thousand) doses in February”
Mkhize further said that as recently as yesterday, teams from the National Department of Health and the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) were fine tuning and aligning all the regulations processes to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays or regulatory impediments to activate this roll out.
“We are happy that the SII/ Astra Zeneca vaccine has already been approved by various regulators and is being rolled out in other countries. Therefore, as part of expediting the regulatory process, SAHPRA is applying reliance on that regulatory work. We also want to inform the public that the acquisition has been done directly by the Department of Health.”
“We will now be engaging all relevant stakeholders in order to ensure the efficient and effective roll out of the vaccine for our health workers,” Mkhize said.
“We urge the public to be patient with us as we continue to engage manufacturers. Our commitment remains to save and protect the lives of our people. We will not neglect our responsibility to protect lives and also fight this pandemic. We therefore call on all South Africans, members of the public, political parties, business, labour, NGOs and community leaders and members to work with us as we start this historic process.”
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