On Monday afternoon, South Africa’s first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines consisting of one million doses arrived in the country.
The consignment arrived at OR Tambo International Airport where President Cyril Ramaphosa, Deputy President David Mabuza, Minister of Heath Dr Zweli Mkhize and other government officials were present to accept and inspect the long-anticipated delivery.
On that same evening, the President addressed the nation giving an update on the vaccine and the status of COVID-19 and lockdown in the country.
Among other things, he eased some of the level 3 restrictions that had been imposed in December including the ban on the sale of alcohol, faith-based gatherings and an extension on the national curfew.
READ MORE | President Ramaphosa eases level 3 restrictions
“These changes have been made possible by the significant reduction in COVID-19 hospital admissions across all provinces, reducing the pressure on beds and hospital personnel,” Ramaphosa said.
About the vaccines
Ramaphosa also shared some important information on the vaccine roll-out plan for the country. He said that this first consignment of vaccines that have just arrived in the country were produced by the Serum Institute in India and developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca together with the University of Oxford.
“Now that the vaccines have arrived they will be tested at the National Control Laboratory to confirm that their integrity has been maintained during transportation," he said.
"After testing, they will be distributed across the country to thousands of our healthcare workers who every day put their own lives at risk to save others.”
Let's take a look at how and when the vaccine will be rolled out and which other vaccines the country has secured.
PHASE 1:
- All healthcare workers in the public and private sectors will be prioritised for vaccination; about 200 facilities have been identified to which the vaccines can be distributed to healthcare workers.
PHASE 2:
- This phase will include essential workers, people over 60 years, people with co-morbidities as well as those living in places such as nursing homes and hostels.
PHASE 3:
- This phase will extend the vaccination programme to the rest of the adult population.
“The Department of Health has developed an Electronic Vaccine Data System to streamline the vaccine registration and rollout process. This will allow us to capture all relevant data associated with the administration of the vaccine,” Ramaphsa said.
“This system allows a person to make an appointment as soon as they qualify for a vaccination at the vaccine centre closest to them. The system will record vaccinations as they are administered.”
- In addition to the 1 million Covishield doses received today; SA can expect another 500,000 doses from the Serum Institute of India to arrive later in February.
- SA has secured 12 million doses in total from the global COVAX facility, which has indicated that it will release approximately 2 million doses by March.
- SA has secured 9 million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson, commencing with delivery in the second quarter. Johnson & Johnson has contracted Aspen, one of our pharmaceutical companies, to manufacture these vaccines in South Africa.
- In addition, Pfizer has committed 20 million vaccine doses commencing with deliveries in the second quarter.
Vaccines secured for broader Africa
Ramaphosa also revealed that South Africa will receive an allocation of vaccine doses through the African Union, which has been negotiating with manufacturers to secure vaccines for the entire continent on a pooled basis.
"Through the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team of the African Union, 1 billion vaccines for the entire continent have been secured," he said.
"Seven hundred million of these will come from the global COVAX facility and 300 million have been facilitated by the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team. There will be other vaccines that will be donated by various private sector companies to add to the vaccines that our continent needs."
He mentioned that MTN, which is one of our companies that operates across a number of countries on the African continent, has made a donation of $25 million (R375 million) to procure 7 million vaccines. These will be made available to countries on the African continent within a matter of weeks.
Citizens will be able to make appointments to get the vaccine as soon as they qualify for vaccination through an Electric Vaccine Data System developed by the Department of Health. No one will be forced to take the vaccine.
