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JOHANNESBURG, Jan 18 (Reuters) - South Africa, which has yet
to receive its first coronavirus vaccine, has been promised 9
million doses by Johnson & Johnson, the Business Day
newspaper reported on Monday, citing a health ministry
spokeswoman.
The government of Africa's most advanced economy is
scrambling to secure enough COVID-19 vaccines, after health
workers and scientists publicly criticised it for not moving
fast enough to inoculate its people.
The country has recorded more than 1.3 million infections
and more than 37,000 deaths related to the virus, the most in
Africa.
Business Day said the 9 million J&J doses took the total
amount of doses South Africa had been promised to more than 30
million. Roughly 12 million doses are coming from the COVAX
global vaccine distribution scheme, around 12 million from an
African Union arrangement, and 1.5 million from the Serum
Institute of India which is making AstraZeneca shots.
Health ministry spokeswoman Lwazi Manzi did not respond to
messages or a phone call seeking comment. J&J did not
immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Anban Pillay, deputy director-general at the health
ministry, told Reuters that in addition to the 20 million doses
that President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week had been secured,
"additional doses have been secured but we cannot make
announcements until we close a couple of matters with the
suppliers".
The health ministry said earlier this month that it was in
advanced negotiations with J&J. Local pharmaceutical company
Aspen will be manufacturing J&J shots but unless a firm
agreement is signed with the South African government all those
doses will be exported.
(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Nick Macfie)
