South Africa says it will import 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to inoculate the country’s health workers.
This is South Africa’s first announcement of the purchase of a Covid-19 vaccine as cases in the country soar.
Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize announced on Thursday that the first one million doses will be delivered later this month from the Serum Institute of India, followed by an additional 500,000 doses in February.
South Africa is battling a dramatic resurgence of Covid-19 that is quickly outstripping its first peak.
It announced record highs of 21,832 new confirmed cases and 844 deaths late on Wednesday.
The country of 60 million people has reported by far the most cases of the coronavirus in Africa, with more than 1.1 million confirmed infections, including 31,368 deaths, representing more than 30% of all cases on the continent of 1.3 billion.
South Africa is not the first country on the 54-nation continent to announce a vaccine deal.
Last month, Morocco announced it had ordered 65 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from China’s Sinopharm and Britain’s AstraZeneca.
South Africa has 1.25 million health care workers in public and private hospitals, and the government has decided they should have first priority in getting protection from Covid-19, the health minister said.
South Africa’s drug regulatory body is “fine-tuning and aligning all the regulations processes to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays or regulatory impediments to activate this rollout”, Mr. Mkhize added.
He said the government intends to vaccinate 67% of the population by the end of 2021, which many experts say is an unrealistic goal.
“We urge the public to be patient with us as we continue to engage manufacturers for the purchase of additional vaccines. We will not neglect our responsibility to protect lives and also fight this pandemic,” Mr. Mkhize said.
