South Africa is expecting to receive at least 2.2 million more Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses at the weekend.<\/P>
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This was announced by Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla on Friday.<\/P>
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The doses were donated by the United States of America via the COVAX facility \u2013 an international group lobbying for the equal access to and procurement of vaccines.<\/P>
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Phaahla said the arrival of the vaccine doses would ensure that the country has a stable supply of the vaccine.<\/P>
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\u201cWe are grateful to the government of the USA for donating through the COVAX facility another 2.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccines, which are arriving on Saturday, 28 August 2021, adding to the 5.6 million we received in July. This donation will reinforce our stock levels,\u201d he said.<\/P>
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Meanwhile, Phaahla acknowledged that there have been calls by some for the COVID-19 vaccination to be made mandatory.<\/P>
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\u201cA suggestion has been made by various influential people in society that we should consider a mandatory vaccination policy. This is a matter which we are very reluctant to venture into but it is a matter which we are discussing in various forums,\u201d he said.<\/P>
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The Minister clarified that this is not a proposal government is expected to implement.<\/P>
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\u201cWe are discussing under what conditions this might be possible, but in my view\u2026 we don\u2019t foresee a kind of regulation or some kind of national government regulation that says everybody must vaccinate.<\/P>
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\u201cWe really wouldn\u2019t really want to go that route. But what is possible and what we consider is that where various service providers or areas of entertainment or where people obtain services or even workplaces\u2026 there is a possibility that a locally determined requirement can be [made].<\/P>
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\u201cWe believe that [is where] it could be done but we don\u2019t foresee where it can be a regulation as part of the Disaster Management [Act] to say it\u2019s compulsory for every adult,\u201d Phaahla said.<\/P>
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The Minister said the possible need for extra shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine \u2013 which are said to dramatically increase antibodies against COVID-19 \u2013 is also under discussion but the current focus remains on rolling out the current vaccines to as much of the population as possible.<\/P>
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\u201cWe have referred this to our vaccine Ministerial Advisory Committee to advise us but I must emphasise that our priority at this moment is to make sure that all South African adults, who are willing to get the vaccine, should get a dose as prescribed.<\/P>
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\u201cAt this stage, our priority is to make sure that we reach immunity population coverage,\u201d he said.<\/P>
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Source: South African Government News Agency<\/P>
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South Africa is expecting to receive at least 2.2 million more Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses at the weekend.This was announced by Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla on Friday.The doses were donated by the United States of America via the COVAX facility \u2013 a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n