South Africa Sees Vaccine Deals Wrapped Up Within a Month
- Country secured 21.5 million doses, including Covax allocation
- Health department denies it was lax in securing shots
A vial of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
Photographer: Steve Parsons/PA Wire/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
South Africa’s health department expects to finalize accords to buy millions of additional coronavirus vaccines within about a month and has agreed on an expedited payment process with the National Treasury to avoid delays in delivery.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said this week that his administration had secured 20 million vaccine doses this year, without giving details of what they would cost. His announcement came days after the government struck a deal for an initial 1.5 million doses of a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and the University of Oxford from The Serum Institute of India Ltd., with first shipments set to arrive this month.