Western Cape Health Department Head, Keith Cloete, says the vaccination roll-out programme for all residents in the province is expected later in April.
Members of the public, who are older than 60 years and those who have other chronic illnesses, will be first in the queue.
Over 50 000 health workers have received their jabs thus far as part of the ongoing Sisonke trial.
Cloete was joined by Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde, as he unveiled COVID-19 safety plans for the Easter Weekend during a weekly digital conference with the media.
“We are expected more from Sisonke by the second week of April, whatever we receive, health workers will be vaccinated from there in addition to that Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson, they will arrive in bigger quantities during April into May then we can complete healthcare workers and then we will be moving to the general public.”
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has called on pharmaceutical firms, manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine, to make enough for everyone in the world or voluntarily hand their technology to developing countries.
WTO’s Head, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says it is not acceptable to leave poorer countries at the end of the queue for vaccines.
Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged that members were split on the issue of relaxing WTO rules on intellectual property so that more drug manufacturers can make the jabs.
World Trade Organisation’s waivers on COVID-19 vaccines:
She says pharmaceutical companies should follow AstraZeneca which has allowed India’s Serum Institute to manufacture its vaccine at a cost price.
“If we had more of that kind of voluntary licensing and transfer faster, we could save many more people. There is some capacity in emerging markets and developing countries in use now. Less have the same arrangement that AstraZeneca has with the Serum Institute. Novavax, Johnson & Johnson and all the others should follow suit,” says Okonjo-Iweala.
South Africa has remained at the forefront of efforts at the WTO to trigger waivers that would temporarily suspend patent laws that limit the global production of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical products
