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JOHANNESBURG – The government started talks with vaccine manufacturers too late, according to Alex Van den Heever of the Wits School of Governance.
Van den Heever says this makes it unlikely that the first batch will arrive in February.
READ: COVID-19: The government expects the vaccine for February
He says that no agreements or commitments have yet been made.
First of all, it’s not going to be feasible, I think it’s very unlikely given that they haven’t done the underlying work to get to that point, for us to have a vaccine in February we will need to have some commitments … in terms of having agreements bilaterals with manufacturers and I don’t think we have reached any stage of maturity at this time, so it is completely speculated that we will have access to the vaccine in February, “he said.
“That’s not to say that we shouldn’t have expected to have vaccines starting in February, but because they only started considering doing this last month, rather than preparing from mid-year, we definitely put ourselves in a difficult position.”
Wits University virologist Shabir Madhi says the vaccine is unlikely to be ready next month.
He says there is still a lot to do.
READ: More than 40 million South Africans selected to receive the vaccine
“What has been presented is not a strategy, it is an aspiration, it is an ambitious goal, and the reason I say that is because you can only have an established strategy in terms of targeting 67% of the population once you has secured vaccine supplier, “he said.
The government expects manufacturers to deliver COVID-19 vaccines next month, with priority given to front-line care workers.
