Faizel Patel – 02/02/2021
The Bhekisisa Centre for Health journalism says the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa is excellent news and gives hope to the country in mitigating the spread of the pandemic.
South Africa has something to smile about for the first time in almost a year.
Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, transported 1 million doses of the Oxford University- AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India from Mumbai to Johannesburg via Dubai.
At Dubai International Airport, the vaccines were stored securely at Emirates SkyCargo’s GDP certified temperature controlled Emirates SkyPharma facility before arriving in South Africa.
It will be a couple of weeks before the vaccines will be ready for rollout.
Speaking to Radio Islam, Adele Sulcas of the Bhekisisa Centre for Health journalism says there was consternation on a number of fronts about new volumes of vaccines that the country was expecting.
However she says the private sector has also played a role in the assistance for the procurement of vaccines.
“What I think is quite significant is the MTN $25 million to procure seven million vaccine doses for African countries which is obviously hugely important for countries like neighboring countries such as Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia who have been struggling to procure their own. It’s an excellent example of private sector leadership.
So how much will the vaccine cost South Africans? Sulcas explains.
“Happily that amount is zero. So, if you do not have a medical aid, government underwrites the entire cost, which means they pay for the dose of the vaccine itself as well as the whatever the administration cost is of the person and the facility where you get the inoculation.”
Sulcas says the process of verifying the COVID-19 vaccines is expected to take about two weeks before it is rolled out in three phases.
Listen to the interview with Adele Sulcas
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