Millions of vaccines secured for SA, says Ramaphosa
An 'Electronic Vaccine Data System' that will capture information about every, single jab will play a significant role in South Africa's COVID-19 vaccination programme.
We have taken delivery of our first shipment of coronavirus vaccines, one million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots.
The country's expected to begin phase one of inoculations with frontline healthcare workers, the first to receive the jab.
Ramaphosa says people will have to make an appointment via the system to get the vaccine - as soon as they qualify, "Now that the vaccines have arrived they will be tested at the National Control Laboratory to confirm that their integrity has been maintained during transportation. "
He says after testing, they will be distributed across the country to thousands of healthcare workers who every day put their own lives at risk to save others."
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Phase two of the roll-out will target essential workers, people over 60 and people with co-morbidities.
Others will be inoculated during phase three.
Ramaphosa says they've secured more vaccines to help the country achieve 'herd immunity', "We expect another 500,000 doses from the Serum Institute of India to arrive later in February."
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"We have secured 12 million doses in total from the global COVAX facility, which has indicated that it will release approximately 2 million doses by March. We have secured 9 million vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson, commencing with delivery in the second quarter.
He adds that Johnson & Johnson has contracted Aspen, a pharmaceutical company, to manufacture these vaccines in South Africa.
In addition, Pfizer has committed 20 million vaccine doses commencing with deliveries in the second quarter.
