South Africa, the country with the highest Coronavirus cases in Africa, will roll out the first coronavirus vaccine trial in Africa this week.
The vaccine, known as ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, was developed by the Oxford Jenner Institute and it is already being evaluated in Britain, where 4,000 participants have signed up for the trial.
South Africa has set out to vaccinate 2,000 people with the vaccine. Fifty of the candidates have HIV. Wits are collaborating with the University of Oxford and the Oxford Jenner Institute on the South African trial.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize echoed Madhi’s concerns, warning that South Africa was going through a “devastating storm” expected to peak “during the cold winter months”.
At the opening of a field hospital in the Eastern Cape province, Mkhize said more than half of South Africa’s population may be infected with the deadly virus.