SOUTH African President Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to intensify efforts to rebuild an economy shattered by the onset of the coronavirus, with vaccine procurement and enhanced energy security among his top priorities.
The government has secured 9 million single-shot vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, with 80,000 expected to arrive next week and 500,000 over the next four weeks, Ramaphosa said in his state-of-the-nation address on Thursday.
Talks are ongoing to secure sufficient supply to inoculate two-thirds of the nation’s 60 million people, with 12 million doses already pinned down from the Covax initiative and 20 million from Pfizer Inc. that will begin arriving at the end of the first quarter, he said.
“Fundamental to our nation’s recovery is an unrelenting and comprehensive response to overcome the coronavirus,” Ramaphosa said in his speech in parliament in Cape Town.
“We must undertake a massive vaccination program to save lives and dramatically reduce infections.”
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