South Africa To Start Vaccinating Millions Against Local COVID-19 Variant – Ramaphosa

SOUTH Africa has secured millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer Inc vaccines to fight the highly infectious COVID-19 variant that is dominant in the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday.

During a televised annual state of the nation address, Ramaphosa said South Africa had secured 9 million doses of the J&J vaccine, with 500,000 expected to arrive over the next four weeks so authorities can start inoculating health workers. Another 20 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech were also on their way, he said.

South Africa has been hit hard by a second wave of COVID-19, after the discovery of a new variant in the Eastern Cape, called 501Y.V2, believed to be 50% more contagious than earlier versions of the coronavirus.

It has already spread to two dozen other countries.

“Driven by a new variant of the virus, this second wave was more