First Covid-19 shots to land in SA on Monday
The first doses of Covid-19 vaccines procured by the government from the Serum Institute of India (SII) will arrive in SA on Monday, health minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Wednesday night.
“I am pleased to announce that the flight will leave India on January 31, fly via Dubai and land at OR Tambo on Monday, February 1,” he said.
It would then take between 10 and 14 days for the vaccines to be cleared by SA’s medicines regulator, before being distributed to the provinces.
SA has the biggest recorded Covid-19 outbreak in Africa, with more than 1.4-million confirmed cases and close to 42,000 deaths, yet it has been slow to secure vaccines and join the biggest global immunisation drive in history.
As of Wednesday, 57 countries had collectively administered 71.3-million doses of coronavirus vaccines, according to Bloomberg. Israel is leading the race and has already administered at least one shot of a two-dose regimen to more than 30% of its population. But across most of Africa, the shots are still months away.
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