PICS: First batch of J&J Covid-19 vaccines arrive in SA
Johannesburg - South Africa received its first delivery of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine at O R Tambo International Airport in Gauteng late on Tuesday.
"The vaccine has been approved by South African Health Products Authority. The consignment will be moved to a secure facility in Gauteng before being distributed overnight to the various vaccine centres in all provinces," Presidency spokesperson Phumla William said.
Due to the logistical purposes around the arrival of the vaccines, no media access was granted, Williams said.
The 80 000 J&J shots will kickstart the country’ vaccination rollout which was paused after preliminary trial data showed that the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, which the country received earlier this month, offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the coronavirus variant dominant in SA.
Government has been consulting scientists about what to do with the AstraZeneca vaccine, switching to a plan to start inoculating healthcare workers with J&J's alternative in a research study.
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) had previously said if the first shots arrived on Tuesday, then vaccinations could start on Wednesday.
SAMA chairwoman Angelique Coetzee said vaccinations would happen at hospitals in each of the country's nine provinces. Roughly two-thirds of the doses would go to public-sector health workers, and one-third to those in the private sector.
J&J's vaccine is administered in a single shot, an advantage given how complex a logistical exercise the mass vaccination campaign will be.
Meanwhile, according to Professor Linda-Gail Bekker, deputy director of the UCT's Desmond Tutu HIV Centre and an infectious diseases specialist, SA has to administer all 80 000 Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 doses before it can receive more vaccines.
Bekker, who is the national co-ordinator of the rollout for health care workers, said if SA administers the doses, a further 200 000 more doses has been promised.
"They will be coming in tranches of 80 000 to these 17 sites for the first two weeks and we will then move to the next phase where we will be targeting more people,” she said.
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