JOHANNESBURG — South Africa has signed an agreement with
Pfizer Inc for 20 million dual shot COVID-19 vaccine doses, a government
official told Reuters on Tuesday, boosting plans to start mass vaccinations
from April.
اضافة اعلان
The deal is another fillip for the country worst hit by
COVID-19 infections in Africa as it adds to the 31 million single-shot doses
from Johnson & Johnson which the government approved on Thursday.
The first batch from Pfizer is expected to arrive later in
April, Anban Pillay, Deputy Director-general at the Department of Health, told
Reuters, but he did not comment on the price.
The government is buying the J&J vaccine for $10 per
dose.
After the Pfizer deal, the government will have enough to
vaccinate roughly 41 million people out of its total population of 60 million.
The country has also been allocated 12 million shots under
the World Health Organization's COVAX scheme and is likely to get doses for 10
million people from the African Union's AVATT initiative.
It is not clear whether the COVAX and AVATT doses will be a
single shot, dual shot or a mix of both.
Health experts have urged the government to scale up its
vaccination program in the light of speculation that Africa's most
industrialized country is likely to be hit by a third wave of infections in the
winter months of June and July.
South Africa's vaccination campaign was dealt a blow in
early February when it put on hold a plan to start inoculations with
AstraZeneca's vaccine, after a small trial showed it offered minimal protection
against mild to moderate COVID-19 caused by the dominant local coronavirus
variant.
The government then switched to the J&J shot in an
"implementation study" to start protecting frontline healthcare
workers with limited doses.
.jpg)
.jpg)
