South Africa, one of the African countries that have been hard hit by the second wave of the coronavirus, is set to obtain its first vaccine doses next month, the Minister of Health announced on Sunday.
In recent weeks, the government of South Africa has come under criticism, particularly from health experts, over the delay of the government in starting a programme of inoculation against COVID-19.
At a news conference, the health minister, Dr. Zweli Mkhize, said, “We are targeting February”, cautioning that before that can happen, negotiations must be concluded with vaccine makers such as Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, as well as the Russian and Chinese laboratories.
The government also planned to seek assistance from the private sector as well as the country’s main health insurers in order to finance its vaccine programme.
South Africa is participating in Covax, a World Health Organization’s mechanism for global vaccination.
Last week, the administration paid a deposit of 15.8 million euros to enter Covax, the mechanism for the equitable distribution of vaccines established by the UN World Health Organization.
However, the African most hit country does not expect to receive the first vaccine doses under that programme until the second quarter of the year.
The Minister said, “It is clear that the second wave that we are going through is affecting us to levels which are even higher than in the earlier stage.”
Adding that “The only way to deal with the Covid-19 not only in South Africa but throughout the world is the provision of the immunity through the vaccination.
The country’s first main goal is to vaccinate 67 percent of its population of 59 million people, in order to achieve sufficient collective immunity to staunch the spread of the virus.
On Thursday South Africa registered a record 18,000 new cases in 24 hours.
It is also the first African nation to top 1 million registered Covid-19 cases.
