South Africa Happily Receives Covid-19 Vaccine Consignment From India

Last updated on February 6th, 2021 at 08:58 am

India is being talked about for all the right reasons. For once, it is being appreciated for its resilience in having combat the Covid-19 situation, successfully bringing down infection numbers, and developing a vaccine that is now helping its neighbors with a free supply of doses. 

The best part is its contributions to one of the world’s poorest continents, Africa.  South Africa has received its first lot of Covid-19 vaccine developed in India. As many as one million doses were received for the medical fraternity to be administered with. This is for the first time that South Africa has received Covid-19 vaccination.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and other top officials personally received the vaccine dosages. However, he has been criticized for not having procured the vaccine doses in time. South Africa has received one million shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII).

South African is one of those countries that have recorded a huge number of Covid-19 cases and related deaths. The SII is due to send another 500,000 doses later this month. Looking at its wide population, the country will need more shots to cover South Africa’s 1.25 million health workers.  It is worth noting that the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine is administered in two doses.

South Africa is one of those poor countries that is covered under the Covax scheme floated by the United Nations. This is going to secure further 50million more vaccine doses for the country’s population. However, these doses would only come into the country by March. Meanwhile, South Africa will be making use of the Indian contributions. India on its part has promised to provide vaccines to the world, wherever it is needed, and wants to share its R&D success with others. It has already provided free consignment to Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Mauritius, and Seychelles.