The South African Government has outlined the country’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan with vaccination likely to begin in February after being hit by a second wave of coronavirus cases.
Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize while giving an update on the government’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategy on Sunday, December 3, said they expect manufacturers to deliver COVID-19 vaccines as early as next month, and priority will be given to frontline care workers.
He said “We’re trying as much as possible to get some vaccines to be available much before that date, we are targeting February, all of that will depend on the success of current bilateral negotiations we’re having with various companies. It is clear that the second wave that we are going through is affecting us to levels which are even higher than in the earlier stage, the only way to deal with the Covid-19 not only in South Africa but throughout the world is the provision of the immunity through the vaccination,”
This comes a week after the South African government paid a deposit of 15.8 million euros to enter Covax, the mechanism for the equitable distribution of vaccines established by the UN World Health Organisation
The country plans to vaccinate 67 per cent of its population of 59 million people, in order to achieve sufficient collective immunity to contain the spread of the coronavirus.