South African health authorities on Friday said about 100,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine are at risk of being destroyed by the end of March to slow uptake, reported Reuters.
South Africa has reported the most number of COVId-19 cases and deaths on the African continent. The country now has ample vaccine stocks of about 25 million doses due to slow vaccination uptake.
“There is a risk that just over 100,000 or so doses which will expire by end of March … may have to be discarded,” South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla told an online news conference. “It will be a sad day if significant volumes of doses can end up being discarded. We hope it will not reach that stage.”
Phaala said the authorities are trying to boost the inoculation rate in order to save the vaccine doses from being discarded. The country has so far fully vaccinated around 43% of its 40 million adults.
South Africa kicked off its coronavirus vaccination campaign with the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer vaccines. Last month, the health authorities changed the country’s COVID-19 vaccination rules in an effort to encourage more people to get jabbed.
The South African health minister said the government is still aiming for a 70% vaccination target, which would allow it to further ease restrictions.
He said his department is working hard to formulate new regulations to replace the country’s state of disaster and will soon present its proposals to the cabinet and the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC). South Africa’s state of disaster, which was first declared at the end of March 2020, is currently set to expire on 15 March 2022.
Phaahla said the new recommendations would replace the National Disaster Act.
“We hope the reviewed health regulations and other regulations from other departments will assist in guiding a reopening – especially in the leisure and tourism industries,” the health minister said.
