Sinovac decision to be made ‘in the coming days’, says Sahpra
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) says a decision on the approval of Sinovac will be made public in the coming days.
Sahpra briefed the media on Thursday on the registration status of various Covid-19 vaccines.
“Just to indicate again with the Sinovac vaccine we are quite advanced and we hope to have a decision in the next coming days or so,” said Sahpra CEO Dr Boitumelo Semete.
READ: South Africa records 19 000 new Covid-19 cases
The Chinese-made Sinovac, along with Russia’s Sputnik V, have been under review with the regulatory body.
Last month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) approved Sinovac for emergency purposes.
But there is still no word on the approval process for Sputnik V.
Semete said the Sputnik vaccine will remain under “rolling review”.
“In terms of Sputnik the application that they have made is a rolling review. As data becomes available they make that available to us.”
The country’s vaccine rollout is only authorised to use the Johnson & Johnson, Astra-Zeneca and the Pfizer vaccines.
The EFF recently marched to the Sahpra headquarters in Tshwane to demand the inclusion of the Sputnik V and Sinovac vaccines in the government's vaccination rollout programme.
