SA risks destroying 100,000 vaccine doses by end of March due to slow uptake

About 100,000 doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine are at risk of being destroyed by the end of this month due to slow uptake by citizens, health authorities said on Friday.

SA has recorded the most coronavirus infections and deaths on the African continent, but inoculations have slowed and the country has ample vaccine stocks of about 25-million doses.

“There is a risk that about 100,000 doses which will expire by end of March ... may have to be discarded. It will be a sad day if such volumes of doses are discarded. We hope it will not reach that stage,” health minister Joe Phaahla told an online news conference.

He said the department was trying to ramp up inoculations. SA has so far fully vaccinated about 43% of its 40-million adults.

SA's vaccination campaign, using the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer vaccines, got off to a slow start due to difficulties securing early supplies, but more recently it has been dogged by hesitancy. Last month the country changed its Covid-19 vaccination rules in an effort to encourage more people to get jabs. 

TimesLIVE reported earlier that the minister said 48% of the adult population had received at least one jab, and “this is a far cry from the 78% we had hoped for in terms of population immunity”.

Phaahla said the over-50s have fared well, with more than 60% full coverage, but the 18- to 34-year-olds were on 34% coverage and only 29% were fully vaccinated.

Reuters, additional reporting by TimesLIVE