{"id":167349,"date":"2021-01-31T15:02:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T12:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/s-africa-orders-20-mln-pfizer-vaccines-report\/"},"modified":"2021-01-31T15:02:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T12:02:57","slug":"s-africa-orders-20-mln-pfizer-vaccines-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/s-africa-orders-20-mln-pfizer-vaccines-report\/","title":{"rendered":"#S.Africa orders 20 mln Pfizer vaccines: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#S.Africa orders 20 mln Pfizer vaccines: report<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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South Africa has secured 20 million doses of the Pfizer\/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, the health minister told a Sunday news<\/a>paper.\n <\/p>\n

Africa’s worst virus-hit country has yet to begin vaccinating its population against COVID-19, stirring criticism over slow procurement and lack of strategy.<\/p>\n

A first shipment of AstraZeneca\/Oxford jabs produced in India is due to arrive on Monday, with injections expected to start two weeks later.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told The Sunday Times that 20 million additional vaccines had been ordered from US drugmaker Pfizer.<\/p>\n

“These vaccines are secured and awaiting manufacturers to submit final agreements with details of delivery dates and exact amounts,” said Mkhize.<\/p>\n

The health ministry did not respond to several AFP requests for comment. <\/p>\n

The new Pfizer order will complement 12 million vaccine doses from the WHO-backed Covax facility, nine million Johnson & Johnson shots and 1.5 million AstraZeneca\/Oxford vaccines\u2014pushing the total supply secured so far to over 40 million.<\/p>\n

South Africa aims to vaccinate 67 percent of the population, or 40 million people, by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Some vaccines will be provided by Covax and the African Union, while others will be directly purchased from suppliers. <\/p>\n

“We are reasonably comfortable that what we have paid for, signed for and are negotiating for will cover the numbers that we are looking to vaccinate,” Mkhize assured.<\/p>\n

The minister added that storage of the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine, which needs to be kept at -70 degrees Celsius, would not be an issue.<\/p>\n

“We have some capacity, mostly in academic institutions. There are now companies coming forward with storage and transit solutions,” he said.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s coronavirus outbreak has been accelerated by a new variant thought to be more contagious than earlier forms and relatively more resistant to existing vaccines.<\/p>\n

To date the country has recorded more than 1.4 million infections and almost 45,000 deaths.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n S.Africa orders 20 mln Pfizer vaccines: report (2021, January 31)
\n retrieved 31 January 2021
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2021-01-safrica-mln-pfizer-vaccines.html<\/p>\n

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