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During the most difficult part of the tough lockdown, the government announced plans to use the pandemic to try to spin the economy and jump-start manufacturing. Eyewitness News analyzes the progress made so far
FILE: One of the ventilators now in production in South Africa as part of the National Ventilator Program was designed by CSIR. Image: CSIR.
CAPE TOWN – As active COVID-19 cases continue to rise, the government is celebrating some of the small gains that have occurred due to the pandemic.
During the most difficult part of the hard lockdown, the government announced plans to use the pandemic to try to spin the economy and jump-start manufacturing.
His key focus areas included South African-produced ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), and test reagents required for COVID-19 testing conducted here.
NATIONAL FANS PROGRAM
Fan manufacturing was one of a series of projects launched at the height of the shutdown in an attempt to meet our own needs and potentially revitalize the manufacturing industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic really revealed South Africa’s dependence on international markets.
It’s not easy being a relatively small economy competing against the world’s superpowers for resources like fans and much-sought-after personal protective equipment.
By the time the count of COVID infections in the country reached 1,500, authorities began to worry that there would not be enough ventilators for everyone and thus began the project to make ours.
The government commissioned the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory to lead the National Fan Program (NVP).
SARAO engineering team leader and NVP manager Willem Esterhuyse said this is due to his experience designing sophisticated systems for the MeerKAT radio telescope in the Northern Cape.
READ: Local team of experts produces non-invasive mechanical ventilators
The Solidarity Fund contributed R250 million to start the project.
“On top of that, there have been several other manufacturers that have obtained licenses, so if the demand for these fans were to increase in the future, we would have significant local capacity in South Africa that could be used,” Esterhuyse said. .
The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition has confirmed that more than 20,000 fans have been produced and distributed right here in South Africa.
Minister Ebrahim Patel said the ventilators had been distributed to health centers across the country but were expected to eventually become an export product.
EXPORTS OF HAND SANITIZERS
The Department has also confirmed that South Africa has exported hand sanitizer to more than 20 African countries worth more than 1.66 billion rand.
“That is a very important business now, we are also selling hand sanitizers and face masks to neighboring countries, so it shows the opportunity to use innovation to drive our manufacturing program.”
Patel said the ability to make medical grade or N95 face masks had also expanded rapidly.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, the country produced 6 million units per month. Now we have the capacity to produce 13 million units per month and we have about ten factories that produce them ”.
At the moment, the production guarantees a constant flow for the country’s health workers, but in the future such masks can also be used in the mining industry and other sectors.
The production of a COVID-19 vaccine currently being developed by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson is also in the pipeline.
“They will use the Aspen Pharmacare facility in Nelson Mandela Bay to produce vaccines. As soon as their vaccine has been completed and approved, manufacturing will take place in South Africa, ”Patel said.
SA REAGENTS ON THE HORIZON
Meanwhile, locally produced reagents needed for COVID-19 testing are expected to be ready for the market in the next three months.
The Center for Scientific and Industrial Research has been leading this initiative, as a shortage of test kits and reagents threatened South Africa’s ability to respond effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic in June.
Back then, countries around the world expanded their testing strategy in a bid to slow the rapid spread of the coronavirus, and demand for reagents skyrocketed.
The COVID-19 pandemic took most countries by surprise: an unknown virus, whose characteristics are very little known.
When he got home, it spread like wildfire and soon the testing labs were completely exhausted.
CSIR Principal Investigator Dr Lusisizwe Kwezi said that together with one of its spin-off companies, CapeBio Technologies, it received R 1.4 million in funding from the South African Medical Research Council to develop a prototype reagent for the kits. COVID-19 test.
READ MORE: SAMRC to finalize the COVID-19 testing innovations review process
“To date, we have developed a prototype, which we have shown that in the laboratory, using diagnostic materials, it is possible to detect specific biomarkers related to COVID.”
Kwezi said they are finalizing the validation processes, before submitting the prototype to the South African Medical Device Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) for further scrutiny.
Hopefully we can start to recover some data soon. I think once we have it, we can complete the dossier and send the prototype to SAHPRA for evaluation and licensing. “
Scientists have condensed the reagent development process, which normally takes a few years to complete, to six months.
One of the main objectives of this project is to ensure that we have enough reagents for the country, but also competitiveness in terms of costs.
The reagents are used to extract viral DNA from a throat or nasopharyngeal swab, necessary for a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19.
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