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Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize outlined South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccine deployment strategy in a public address on Sunday night (January 3), as the country faces a second wave of the virus. .
“We are targeting a minimum of 67% of the population to achieve herd immunity and the focus will be on a gradual rollout of the vaccine starting with the most vulnerable of our population,” said the minister.
Dr Mkhize said the government is aware of the urgency of obtaining a vaccine.
“We have established structures to accelerate financing, sourcing and procurement, and therefore the issue of vaccine strategy will receive the full attention of the department and the government.”
He said the only way to deal with a second wave is to develop herd immunity through vaccination.
“Vaccines should be available quickly so that the majority of our citizens are covered by the end of the first year of implementation, this year,” said the minister.
“Having secured 10% of the population, we have embarked on other efforts to make the remaining 57% of the population the target by the end of 2021 but, more importantly, we are making efforts to obtain vaccines much earlier. hopefully in February 2021, ”he said.
The priority of the vaccine launch will begin with healthcare workers, the elderly and people with comorbidities.
DDG, Dr. Anban Pillay: The approach we will use is in phases; the first phase will be our front-line healthcare staff. Phase two will be essential workers, people who are in congregated settings, and people over the age of 18 who have comorbidities. #VaccineStrategy
– Dr. Zweli Mkhize (@DrZweliMkhize) January 3, 2021
“At the end of phase 3: 40,350,000 citizens will have been immunized, equivalent to approximately 67.25% of the population as we have indicated,” said the minister.
The government said it will need to raise funds to cope with the rest of the population. Mkhize said the 1.8 billion rand set aside for vaccines has already been used. The minister said the government has approached the Solidarity Fund to help in the procurement process.
Dr Mkhize said: “To optimize stock availability for ourselves, we are negotiating with all manufacturers and going after those who are indicating an appetite for vaccines to be available earlier.
“We are in delicate discussions. I have participated in some of these discussions and I can mention some of them, Astra Zeneca, Moderna, etc. “
In addition, the minister said that the government has embarked on public-private partnerships “with very good results and we have approached medical aid to be part of the co-financing.”
“The process is now at a stage where the Medical Schemes Council has compromised various medical schemes and I have signed amendments to the regulations to allow vaccines and other therapies to be part of the prescribed minimum benefits,” he said.
Running out of options
However, Bloomberg reported that South Africa, along with many other African nations, has few options for acquiring Covid-19 vaccines.
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE have offered to supply Africa with 50 million Covid-19 vaccines for healthcare workers between March and the end of this year, the presidency said in a response to Bloomberg on Sunday.
Moderna Inc has no supplies for Africa, while AstraZeneca Plc has no vaccines for the continent in 2021 and directed the African Union to negotiate with the Serum Institute of India Ltd, which is manufacturing the vaccine on behalf of AstraZeneca. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is the President of the African Union.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response comes after days of harsh criticism in South Africa over the country’s vaccination strategy by health leaders, trade unions and opposition parties.
Although four vaccine trials are underway in the country, South Africa has only arranged to buy enough injections for 10% of its population of 60 million people through the Covax initiative, which is designed to ensure equitable access. to vaccines.
“We are working hard in South Africa and on the continent to protect our people against Covid-19,” the presidency said.
Discussions are underway with Johnson & Johnson, which is conducting a trial in South Africa and plans to produce 300 million doses a year at a factory in the country owned by Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd when the injection is approved.
South Africa is holding direct talks with vaccine suppliers, including J&J, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, about supplies for the country, the presidency said.
The vaccine “is not just a weapon to end the pandemic”
Leading experts on South Africa’s vaccine procurement strategy say that while securing a Covid-19 vaccine is high on the country’s agenda, it is not a magic bullet to end the pandemic.
“There is a widespread misunderstanding and we must clarify that once vaccines reach our doorstep, it will not be the end of the epidemic.
“The first branches will be used to protect health workers and will have no effect on the population as such.
“Then there will be immunization of the population and that will take a long time,” said Professor Barry Schoub, who is the chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on vaccine development.
Schoub, along with the Deputy Director General of the Department of Health, Dr. Anban Pillay, and the researcher of the extramural unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), Safura Abdool Karim, participated in a panel discussion broadcast by SABC on the outlook for the Covid-19 vaccine in 2021.
“The Covax facility has indicated that we should expect delivery of the vaccine in the second quarter. [of 2021]. They are trying very hard to get us delivered before then. If they are successful with the manufacturers, we may get delivery earlier, but we don’t have a specific date yet.
“Covax told us that in early January, they will have a firm date on when exactly that delivery will take place and we will certainly communicate that as soon as we know what that date is,” Pillay said.
Karim, by dispelling some misconceptions that the government did not get the vaccine in time, explained the historical inequity in drug procurement.
“All I would like to discuss is the idea that our situation is due to poor planning. The reason why South Africa cannot access the vaccine is because of the way the US and the UK have done it, we are not a rich country and that is a historical inequity.
“The poorest countries always lag behind when it comes to health interventions and that is not the result of our government not wanting a vaccine. This is the result of a system that prioritizes profit over people’s lives, ”said Karim.
In addition, Pillay said that South Africa wants to acquire a vaccine with the best efficacy, which will be easily stored for mass deployment.
“You have to keep in mind that the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius. Many countries did not opt for the Pfizer vaccine as a mass vaccination program because it is very difficult to do so, particularly in a country like South Africa and many other developing nations that do not have storage capacity for -70 degrees.
“We have commercially only two large storage facilities that will keep a vaccine at -70 degrees. So we could not maintain the large amounts that are required to vaccinate many people, “he said.
“The launch of the vaccine will take place nationally, there will be a procurement approach and then we will work with our provincial colleagues and the private sector for distribution,” Pillay said in a separate note Sunday night.
Read: Africa was left with few vaccine options, says South Africa
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