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Mabuza on an inspection visit at the Biovac Institute as country gears up for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing

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Chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on COVID-19 Vaccines, Deputy President David Mabuza, is visiting the Biovac Institute in Pinelands in the Western Cape on Thursday as government further explores the manufacturing of coronavirus vaccines in South Africa.

Mabuza will inspect how the current vaccine for children, which guards against six diseases including polio, is packaged by technicians.

Pharmaceutical company Biovac Institute, at Pinelands in Cape Town, began manufacturing and packaging a paediatric vaccine last year.

The institute is striving to scale up to become a major vaccine manufacturing output facility in response to COVID-19 and possible future pandemics.

COVID-19 Vaccine | Deputy President David Mabuza visits Biovac Institute:

The Biovac Institute is a biopharmaceutical company that is the result of a partnership between the government to establish local vaccine manufacturing capability for the provision of vaccines for national health management and security.

Earlier this month, Mabuza visited the Biovac facility in Johannesburg, saying it will focus on ensuring that the country has the required domestic capacity to respond to vaccine needs.

Deputy President Mabuza on a walkabout at the Biovac Institute:

Earlier this month, Mabuza said the government was working on improving South Africa’s capability to produce coronavirus vaccines. He was, at the time, visiting the Biovac Institute in Midrand, Johannesburg, where the coronavirus vaccines are being kept.

The visit followed a decision by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on COVID-19 vaccines, which Mabuza chairs, to visit various sites established for the purposes of the vaccine rollout.

Speaking to reporters outside the Midrand facility, Mabuza said Biovac would focus on ensuring that the country has the required domestic capacity to respond to vaccine needs.

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