The Western Cape government says it will forge ahead with the procurement of vaccines to supplement doses which will come from the national government.
Preparations are underway for the rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after the distribution of the AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine was halted after it showed low efficacy against the new COVID-19 variant in South Africa.
Premier Alan Winde says any vaccine which will be procured by the province will go through the necessary health trials.
“These trials under the SAHPRA approval would be what we would want to use. So if the approval is for vaccine A, can we make sure that where possible we’ll top it up so that we actually speed up the process of that vaccine procurement,” says Winde.
COVID Vaccine Distribution | Johnson & Johnson promises 9 million doses to SA
The Department of Health says a batch of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses is expected to arrive in the country next week.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says healthcare workers will be vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine in the form of an “implementation study” in partnership with the Medical Research Council.
This means the government will not have to pay for the first batch of the vaccine.
Update on the coronavirus
11 February 2021As of 1pm on 11 February, the Western Cape has 6729 active COVID-19 infections with a total of 271 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 253612 recoveries.
Statement: https://t.co/anSaYAaStm pic.twitter.com/XuAlI67xkz
— Premier Alan Winde (@alanwinde) February 11, 2021
