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By Alexander Winning
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 27 (Reuters) - South Africa expects the
flight carrying its first 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to
arrive on Feb. 1, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on
Wednesday, boosting efforts to curb a second wave of COVID-19
driven by a more contagious variant.
The AstraZeneca shots, produced by the Serum
Institute of India (SII), are destined for the country's sorely
stretched frontline healthcare workers.
South Africa has recorded the most coronavirus infections
and deaths on the African continent, at more than 1.4 million
cases and over 41,000 deaths to date, and has been battling a
second wave of infections dominated by a more transmissible
coronavirus variant called 501Y.V2 since late last year.
Mkhize said that after the 1 million doses arrive at the OR
Tambo international airport in Johannesburg they would be
subject to technical processes including quality assurance over
a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 14 days.
After that, they can be distributed to all provinces, Mkhize
added. South Africa is due to receive a further 500,000 doses
from the SII in February, also for its healthcare workers.
It later stands to receive around 12 million doses from the
COVAX global vaccine distribution scheme co-led by the World
Health Organization, another 12 million from an African Union
(AU) arrangement, and 9 million from Johnson & Johnson.
Mkhize spoke as South Africa's main opposition party, the
Democratic Alliance, launched court action to force the
government to release details of its vaccination plans.
Some scientists and healthcare workers have publicly
criticised the government for not securing doses sooner or
outlining detailed immunisation plans.
Medicines regulator SAHPRA said on Wednesday it had given
fast-track approval to AstraZeneca's vaccine for emergency use
and that it was reviewing data on the shots of rival
manufacturers Pfizer and J&J.
According to an estimate by the National Treasury, it could
cost between 20 billion and 24 billion rand ($1.3 billion to
$1.6 billion) to vaccinate the government's target of around 40
million people, or two-thirds of the population.
In his capacity as AU chair, South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa urged businesses on Wednesday to help fund the
continent's vaccine rollout. He also asked more countries to
support an initiative to waive intellectual property rules
affecting vaccine production.
(Editing by Mfuneko Toyana, Barbara Lewis and Mark Heinrich)
