Mkhize dismisses rumours that AstraZeneca stock is returning to India

The government has procured enough Covid-19 vaccines to achieve herd immunity as the rollout is expected to begin this week.

Addressing the debate on the State of the Nation Address (Sona) by President Cyril Ramaphosa, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize yesterday dismissed reports that the government had approached the Serum Institute of India (SII) to request that it takes back the one million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.

The Economic Times, an India-based publication, claimed in its report yesterday that SA government intended to return the vaccine.

However, Mkhize was adamant on Tuesday that no vaccine money will be wasted during the procurement.

“I want to refute categorically the speculation in the media that we have returned the AstraZeneca stock back to India. We have not. The AstraZeneca doses that we have purchased have been offered to the African Union platform which we are part of and they will be distributed to the countries that have already indicated interest that do not have a challenge of this particular [current] variant. Therefore, there will not be a wasteful expenditure,” said Mkhize. He said the decision was advised by the ministerial advisory committee.

The minister also added that the country was expecting several batches of other drugs as the nine million doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine arrived at OR Tambo International Airport yesterday with another 500,000 more doses expected later.

Mkhize said another 20 million doses from Pfizer were expected to arrive in the coming week. The government is also in talks with China and Russian to procure vaccines.

J&J is said to be 57% effective in fighting the current strain of Covid-19, 501.V2 variant which was first identified in SA in November, while AstraZeneca was found to be more effective in fighting the original strain.  

“In our discussions we have involved enough dosages to cover all the people that need to be covered in South Africa,” he said. SA needs to vaccinate at least 67% of its population to achieve herd immunity.

Mkhize said about 380,000 health workers have registered electronically to be vaccinated. Further rollout-related announcements will be made later this week.