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President Cyril Ramaphosa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Thursday night that the Solidarity Fund has committed to pay R327 million for COVAX, a global initiative for access to the Covid-19 vaccine.
The president was briefing the country on the latest developments in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic ahead of the busy December holiday period.
Ramaphosa said South Africa was participating in COVAX to “pool resources and share the risk of vaccine development to ensure equitable access to vaccines when available.”
COVAX is an initiative managed by the Global Vaccine Alliance, GAVI and the World Health Organization. “We are encouraged that the Solidarity Fund will make the initial contribution of R327 million for the acquisition of this vaccine on behalf of our country.
“We are also encouraged by the promising results of three candidate vaccine trials, which have shown efficacy levels of between 70 and 95 percent,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa’s announcement following a News24 report that South Africa missed an initial payment deadline to secure its participation in COVAX. The president did not refer to this in his speech.
News24 reported Thursday that South Africa, considered a self-financing country in terms of the COVAX line, needed to have made a 15% down payment by October 9. The remaining 85% should be insured with a government guarantee. Initially, it was reported that South Africa would seek to cover 10% of its population with the installation of COVAX and would focus those doses on frontline workers and healthcare workers.
On Thursday, however, Bloomberg quoted the deputy director general of the national health department, Dr. Anban Pillay, who said that the expected coverage through COVAX was 3% of the population.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said last week that the country has committed R500 million to be part of a consortium, making it one of the first emerging market countries to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, Fin24 previously reported. .
Ramaphosa said that South Africa had suffered a total of 21,803 known Covid-19-related deaths, and although new infections had been stable for some time at around 2,000 per day, infections had started to rise again. The president warned that the Eastern Cape and Western Cape have seen an increase in deaths and transmissions, as there has been a resurgence of infections in both the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape.
There have been concerns that a second wave of infections could justify a more severe blockage. Business For South Africa has warned that if the country returns to Level 3, the country could cut 200,000 more jobs. It would see GDP shrink by 10.6%.
