Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize has sought to allay fears over the efficacy of various coronavirus vaccines, saying government’s main goal is to achieve herd immunity.
The country expects 1.5 million doses from India’s Serum Institute at the end of January.
Mkhize says government is negotiating for another batch of vaccines from various manufacturers.
He says, “It does not yet matter too much who gets which vaccine. The approach is let’s get whatever vaccine we can and administer to make sure our people are safe. The safety of the individual is generally assuring if you’ve got the efficacy over 60-70%, but the real issue for us is each one of these vaccines have been approved and they are good to use. We must always recalculate what the numbers of the people who need to be vaccinated so we can get population immunity.”
Mkhize gives more clarity on when SA will receive vaccines:
Prof. Gregory Hussey of the Vaccines for Africa Initiative at the Institute of Diseases and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town says the only solution to South Africa’s crisis is a safe and effective vaccines.
Prof. Hussey elaborates:
EXPLAINER VIDEO: South Africa’s vaccine rollout strategy:
South Africa has reported 1 412 986 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic and over 40 000 COVID-19-related deaths.
Latest SA stats:
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