IT COULD cost South Africa between 20 billion and 24 billion rands to vaccinate around 40 million people against COVID-19, National Treasury Director-General Dondo Mogajane said on Wednesday.
Mogajane warned that this was just an estimate.
He declined to say how much the Treasury would allocate to vaccine procurement in the 2021 budget due next month, adding the “numbers are still soft”.
Meanwhile, South Africa has approved AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and is reviewing applications by rival manufacturers, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, the medicines regulator said on Wednesday.
“In terms of the AstraZeneca vaccine … this has been granted emergency use (approval) and there will be a press conference with the minister of health on this (later),” said Helen Rees, chairwoman of the South African Health Products board, during a media briefing.
Addressing the African COVID-19 Vaccine Financing and Deployment Strategy Webinar on Wednesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the task before African nations at the moment was to step up global solidarity to ensure equitable access to the vaccines.
“All countries must get vaccines and must get them speedily. It is vital to the global containment of COVID-19 that vaccination takes place in all countries and among all populations. No part of the world will be safe from COVID until all parts of the world are safe,” said Ramaphosa.
“We are all aware of the challenges of accessing vaccines for the Global South, particularly for Africa. The developed North, which has substantial financial resources, has purchased the largest stocks, while we in Africa are struggling to get our fair share.”
Ramaphosa said the continent has secured a provisional 270 million vaccine doses for African countries through the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team.
At least 50 million will be available from April to June 2021.
“These doses are from three major suppliers: Pfizer, AstraZeneca through the Serum Institute of India and Johnson & Johnson. Because of the high cost of vaccines, the Task Team has arranged with Afreximbank to support member states who want to access these vaccines based on a whole-of-Africa approach,” said Ramaphosa.
“Should countries submit firm offers, Afreximbank has committed to provide advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to US$2 billion to the manufacturers on behalf of member states. The AU team and the World Bank are collaborating to ensure that member states can have access to further funding. We appreciate the offer of MTN to donate $25 million to the vaccine programme of the Africa CDC to immunise health workers in Africa. This is solidarity in action.”
(SOURCE: INSIDE POLITICS)
