COVID-19 in SA: When can we expect the vaccine?

JOHANNESBURG – The Health Department insists it is doing everything it can to secure a COVID-19 vaccine for South Africa, but it looks like it will be months before the country begins widespread inoculations.

About 28,000 people have died from the virus in South Africa and that number continues to grow at an alarming rate.

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South Africa’s Medical Research Council, Safura Abdool Karim, explained that “there are several parts to acquiring a vaccine. I think the fact that we are using a mechanism like Covax, which is a consortium of countries that have come together to decide to put pooling their resources to find a vaccine further complicates things. ”

On Monday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said that South Africa will likely only see the vaccine in the second quarter of 2021.

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When asked why it’s taking so long, the Health Department’s deputy director general said Covax seemed like the best option at the time.

Dr. Anban Pillay said that “we participate in the Covax initiative, that initiative allocates vaccines as they are available from the vaccine manufacturers.”

“What has happened is that there are other countries that have already started to implement the vaccine. Many of these countries did not participate in the installation of Covax, but instead reached bilateral agreements with a particular vaccine manufacturer. In this case, the Pfizer vaccine is the one they put their money into, as such, and it turned out well and that’s why they were able to launch their vaccines first.

“Covax, on the other hand, took the approach of spreading risk among various vaccine producers. At the time these Trials started, there was no idea which vaccine was going to succeed and which one was going to fail, so Covax engaged with all vaccine producers. “

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“Based on that, Covax will receive an assignment and has instructed us to await the assignment in due course. . Their soft allocation for us seems to be in the earlier parts so I hope that sometime in April we can get the supply from Covax. “

Dr Pillay said that South Africa is also seeking bilateral agreements with manufacturers for the procurement of vaccines.

* See the full interview with Dr. Anban Pillay and eNCA host Shahan Ramkissoon above.