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Johannesburg, South Africa – South Africa, the continent’s worst affected country by COVID, will receive its first batch of coronavirus vaccines on Monday.
Initially scheduled for the end of January, the first million injections of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine produced in India will be used to vaccinate healthcare workers over the next three months. The second batch of 500,000 hits is scheduled to arrive at the end of February.
Despite criticism from opposition parties and medical experts that the process of obtaining the vaccine has been too long, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has described the arrival of the vaccines from the Serum Institute of India as “a massive achievement of unprecedented proportions.”
Once the shipment has undergone quality controls, which will take between 10 and 14 days, the country will begin its long-awaited immunization campaign in three phases. After inoculation by front-line health workers, other high-risk groups such as the elderly, people with comorbidities and essential workers such as minibus drivers, police and teachers will receive their vaccine. The third phase is aimed at everyone else over 18 years of age.
The first shipment of 1 million doses of #OxfordAstraZeneca vaccine @SerumInst is on the way to @ortambo_int
The shipment left today from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai and will arrive in South Africa on February 1, 2021.# COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/lTw1EtGi0d– Government of South Africa (@GovernmentZA) January 31, 2021
The arrival of the jabs comes a month after the United Kingdom first launched the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and about two months after the United Kingdom and the United States began using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. .
Responding to allegations that the delay was caused by the South African government starting negotiations too late, the Deputy Director General of the National Department of Health, Dr. Anban Pillay, told Al Jazeera: “We could not acquire a vaccine without knowing which is effective, safe and when it would be delivered. This information was only available in December for some vaccines. We had to wait for this information before making a financial commitment. “
Under their agreement, South Africa pays $ 5.25 per injection, $ 2 more than it will cost when the same vaccine arrives within the agreement that the African Union (AU) has secured for African countries.
Professor Barry Schoeb, who chairs the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19, said that South Africa prioritized the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine as “it is the one that was immediately available.”
Authorities aim to vaccinate 40 million South Africans by the end of 2021, or 65 percent of the population of nearly 60 million. “But efficiency will depend on many factors,” Mkhize acknowledged in a public online briefing on the vaccine last week, including the uncertainty of whether South Africa will actually receive the ordered doses.
While he promised that the government would do everything possible to vaccinate as many people as possible, “many other countries are currently not receiving the supplies they asked for,” the minister warned.
According to official sources, 21 million injections of the vaccines Pfizer (12 million) and Johnson & Johnson (nine million) have been secured through collective programs such as the COVAX scheme supported by the World Health Organization and the UA, as well as bilateral agreements. with suppliers. Meanwhile, Mkhize told a Sunday newspaper that Pfizer had ordered another 20 million injections, bringing the expected supply from South Africa to more than 40 million doses.
“These vaccines are insured and waiting for the manufacturers to present final agreements with details of delivery dates and exact quantities,” Mkhize told The Sunday Times.
South Africa is the African country hardest hit by the pandemic, with nearly 1.5 million confirmed cases and nearly 44,000 related deaths. In January, new daily infections peaked at more than 20,000, the vast majority of which can be traced back to a new strain identified last year.
The powerful new 501Y.V2 variant is believed to be 50 percent more transmissible than previous variants, while some studies have shown it to be relatively more resistant to existing vaccines.
Whether the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine is effective against it is currently being studied, and results are expected in the coming days.
#Listen to the experts
Professor Barry Schoub demystifies the # COVID-19 Vaccine Microchip Myth. pic.twitter.com/cvHCqtFm9c– Department of Health: COVID-19 (@ COVID_19_ZA) January 30, 2021
Meanwhile, the government has launched a social media campaign, using hashtags like #VacciNation and #ListenToTheExperts, to debunk myths and rumors about COVID-19 and vaccines that have been circulating widely.
“We are going to make sure there is adequate information available to communities to remove doubts about vaccines,” Mkhize said.
The Health Department is currently conducting a study to find out the level of information about vaccines among healthcare workers, as some seem to be afraid to get vaccinated.
“People are afraid. They talk about 5G, triple 6 and microchips, ”said a nurse who works at a clinic near downtown Johannesburg. According to information from the nurse, the online training of nurses will begin on Monday.
“Health workers have not been sufficiently informed about the vaccine,” said Sibongiseni Delihlaso of the Democratic Nursing Organization of South Africa.
“They are the ones who will drive this on the ground. How are these people going to convince patients to get vaccinated if they are not convinced? “
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