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South Africa has received more Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccines, which arrived in the country on Saturday, March 13.
This is according to the president of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), Professor Glenda Gray.
Since then, the country has received 40,000 more doses of the J&J vaccine, as the government seeks to complete the first phase of its vaccination program that involves health workers in the public and private sectors.
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This now pushes the total number of doses received in the first phase of the government implementation program to 200,000 after the first and second batch doses last month.
Talking to The citizen on Sunday morning, Gray confirmed that South Africa would receive 80,000 doses every 14 days, however in smaller quantities.
“We can expect more vaccines next Wednesday and Saturday, which will then be distributed throughout the country,” he said.
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The total number of vaccines that have been administered to healthcare workers currently stands at 145,544 as of Saturday.
The government has reserved a budget of 9 billion rand towards financing the free Covid-19 vaccination program in the medium term, and the rollout is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year.
This brings the vaccine implementation costs to a total of R10.3 billion for the current year, as an additional R1.3 billion was allocated in the current financial year.
New variants
Earlier this week, KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform (KRISP) group leader Dr. Richard Lessells warned that it would be some time before vaccines could reach as many arms as possible. possible.
Lessells also noted the appearance of two additional variants of SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.7 and A.23.1, amid fears of a possible third wave of Covid-19 before winter.
The Citizen has contacted the Department of Health for more details. The article will be updated as soon as we receive a comment.
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