South Africa expects first vaccine doses next week

South Africa will on Monday receive one million Covid-19 vaccine doses from India, according to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize.

The AstraZeneca doses would undergo technical processes on arrival, including quality assurance, he said.

“These processes will take a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 14 days to complete, upon which we will be ready to distribute the vaccines to all provinces,” he said.

An additional 500,000 doses are expected in February and a further 20 million doses procured for June.

South Africa is the country worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic in Africa. It is battling a highly infectious new mutation of the virus that has led to a surge in new infections.