The health ministry has announced
that South Africa expects to receive its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from
the global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World Health Organization
in the second quarter of next year.
The ministry added in a statement
that it was on track to sign an agreement with the COVAX program by December 15, by
which date it would also make the first tranche of payment.
South Africa has recorded more
than 800,000 coronavirus infections and over 21,000 deaths related to COVID-19,
the most on the African continent.
The country is seeking to buy
vaccines for 10% of its population of roughly 58 million people via COVAX. The
full cost of purchasing that amount of doses is roughly 2.2 billion rand
($145.1 million), of which 327 million rand is a down payment, the health
ministry said.
“Our understanding from the
production estimates we have been provided with at this stage is that we should
expect to receive the first batch of stock in quarter two of 2021,” the statement said.
The ministry added that no
vaccine manufacturers had yet submitted applications to local health regulator
SAHPRA to roll out their vaccine candidates.
“Nevertheless SAHPRA has
committed to ensuring the expeditious evaluation of these vaccines once the
dossiers have been received.”
