Faizel Patel – 24/12/2020
Now that South Africa has paid for the Covax vaccine, which is expected to be delivered to the country by the first half of 2021, who gets the COVID-19 vaccine first?
With South Africa recording a staggering 26% increase in confirmed cases; that equates to more than 14,000 new cases, there is a desperate need to stop the spread the virus.
In a Twitter post by the Health Department, Chairperson of the ministerial advisory committee Professor Salim Abdool Karim explains who would be the first to receive the first doses of the new Covax vaccine when it lands in South Africa.
He says the country is not expected to get large quantities of the vaccine and therefore there is a need to prioritise who gets it first.
“Highest on our list would be those who have very high risk of infection and those would be primarily healthcare workers. Next on the list would be those who suffer the harshest consequences of the disease, the elderly and those with co-morbidities. Then we have to look at ensuring we can provide vaccine to our essential workers so that they can go back to teaching in the classrooms and doing all the things that are important in our lives.”
Karim also shares whether a person needs the vaccine if they had COVID-19 before and recovered from the virus.
“Any person who has acquired the viral infection due to the Coronavirus is expected to have developed some antibodies and some level of protection. That level of protection many not be adequate to protect against reinfection. So it’s advisable that everybody whether you have had the Coronavirus infection in the past or not, that you should have the vaccine.”
Karim says the vaccine in any case will provide a valuable booster dose if you have had a Coronavirus infection in the past.
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