South Africa has secured 9 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, which is said to be effective against the country's COVID-19 variant known as 501Y.V2, President Cyril Ramaphosa said late Thursday.
Delivering his State of the Nation address to a joint sitting of the houses of parliament, Ramaphosa said the first batch of 80,000 doses will arrive in the country next week. Health and other frontline workers will be the first to be vaccinated.
Earlier this week, South Africa temporarily halted the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which was due to be rolled out later this month.
The suspension came hours after a new study revealed that the vaccine is less effective against the 501Y.V2 or South African variant.
South Africa had received 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Feb. 1, which the government said would be administered first to frontline health workers.
Ramaphosa applauded scientists who led the research which provided evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine offers minimal protection from mild to moderate infection by the 501Y.V2 variant.
"Since this variant is now the dominant variant in our country, these findings have significant implications for the pace, design and sequencing of our vaccine program," he said.
Ramaphosa further said his country will receive an additional 12 million vaccine doses from the global COVAX facility.
"This will be complemented by other vaccines that are available to South Africa through the African Union's African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team facility as well," he confirmed.
Ramaphosa also revealed that leading multinational pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer has committed 20 million vaccine doses, commencing with deliveries at the end of the first quarter of 2021.
South Africa has the highest numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths on the continent. Nearly 1.5 million people are known to have been infected with the virus in Africa's most developed economy, while more than 47,000 have died from COVID-19 related illnesses.
"We are continuing our engagements with all the vaccine manufacturers to ensure that we secure sufficient quantities of vaccines that are suitable to our conditions," Ramaphosa said.
He said all medication imported into the country is monitored, evaluated, investigated, inspected and registered by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority.
"The health and safety of our people remains our paramount concern," he added.
