Advertisement
Covid-19: South Africa gives green light to China’s Sinovac vaccine
- The country is battling a third wave of the disease that has pushed the death toll past 60,000 and overwhelmed hospitals
- The South African government has been struggling to secure enough doses, and just over 5 per cent of the population has been vaccinated
2-MIN READ2-MIN
17
South Africa has approved China’s Sinovac vaccine against Covid-19, the acting health minister said on Saturday, as the country faces a crippling third wave of infections that has paralysed hospitals and brought its death toll to 60,000.
“I would like to express gratitude to our regulatory authority for their sense of urgency, which included reducing turnaround time to process applications for registration of … [the] Covid-19 vaccine,” Mmamoloko Kubayi said in a statement.
The surge in infections in Africa’s most industrialised nation has overwhelmed hospitals, especially in the main city of Johannesburg, and left overworked health personnel struggling to find enough beds for critically ill patients.
Advertisement
Just over 5 per cent of South Africans have been vaccinated – or 3.3 million people out of a population of just under 60 million. It has recorded 2 million cases so far, although low testing rates in rural areas mean the real figure is probably higher, health experts say.
After initial doubts owing to a lack of transparency in clinical trial data, Sinovac Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine is emerging as a powerful tool against the virus. Data from Uruguay released last month showed it was over 90 per cent effective in reducing both intensive care admissions and deaths.
Advertisement
South Africa’s low vaccination rate is due to a combination factors including bad luck – the government had to destroy 2 million contaminated Johnson & Johnson vaccines – slow bureaucracy, and richer countries immunising their own citizens first while the developing world waits for its doses.
Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x