A plane carrying the first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has arrived in South Africa, the country's health minister, Zweli Mkhize, said on Monday
JOHANNESBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2021) A plane carrying the first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has arrived in South Africa, the country's health minister, Zweli Mkhize, said on Monday.
"The first batch of Pfizer vaccines have landed at OR Tambo International Airport [in Johannesburg]," Mkhize tweeted.
In his Sunday statement, the health minister said that samples of the Pfizer vaccine would be sent to the National Control Laboratory for quality assurance, after which the doses would be distributed to the provinces.
As for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Mkhize said that the doses were awaiting dispatch at Aspen's Gqeberha factory in the Eastern Cape Province and are expected to be released in mid-May. South Africa stopped administering the US-made vaccine after the US food and Drug Administration said that six women aged 18 to 48 had developed a rare and severe type of blood clot. One of them died.
"This is a precautionary measure following the adverse findings during inspection of Emergent BioSolutions Bayview facility in the United States of America, one of the manufacturing partners of Johnson and Johnson, which prompted the authorities to extend their assessment of all Johnson and Johnson stock worldwide," the health minister said.
South Africa is expecting approximately 325,260 doses of Pfizer to arrive on a weekly basis, to reach a total of over 1,3 million by the end of May. The batches will then increase to an average of 636,480 doses weekly from May 31, for a total of 4.5 million by the end of June.
"In the meantime, we will continue to vaccinate our health care workers with the remaining early access doses of Johnson and Johnson and we will proceed to vaccinate with Pfizer. We, therefore, continue to call on all health care workers, including traditional healers, and all citizens 60 years and above to register on the Electronic Vaccination Data-Base System as we continue to roll out vaccines," Mkhize noted.
South Africa has so far recorded 1.58 million COVID-19 cases and 54,417 related deaths.
