JOHANNESBURG – South Africa will begin rolling out Covid-19 vaccines without the need for local regulatory approval of the injections, a step that other low- and middle-income countries will follow to inoculate their populations against the coronavirus.
The South African Ministry of Health said the country will receive 1 million doses of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca PLC of the Serum Institute of India in January, which has an agreement to manufacture and supply the shots. distribute. A second shipment of 500,000 doses is expected in February. The vaccine needs two doses to have its full effect.
Other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the developing world are likely to follow South Africa’s decision to bypass local regulators in an effort to hasten the firing of at least some of their most at-risk citizens. Some lack their own national drug approval agencies and are expected to rely on World Health Organization certification for the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.
The shots ordered by South Africa from India will be given to health workers, who have suffered from an increase in new cases of Covid-19. Researchers believe the new wave of infections has been exacerbated by a new, likely more transmissible, variant of the coronavirus discovered in the country. In December alone, 5,000 health workers tested positive for the disease, adding an extra burden to hospitals that are already struggling.
South Africa, a country of 60 million people, reported 21,832 new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, the highest daily count, and 392 deaths. Nearly a third of coronavirus tests come back positive – an indication that the actual infection rate is likely much higher – and the South African Medical Research Council said it recorded nearly 7,000 additional deaths in the week of Christmas, most likely to be due to to Covid-19.