South Africa buys 20 million Pfizer COVID-19

South Africa has signed an agreement to buy 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech double-shot vaccine COVID-19, a senior government official said on Tuesday and increased plans to increase vaccinations this month.

The deal is a boost for the country hardest hit by coronavirus infections in Africa, as it adds the 31 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single shot vaccine that the government has already secured.

The first batch from Pfizer is expected to arrive later in April, Anban Pillay, deputy director general of the Department of Health, told Reuters.

He said he was not allowed to disclose the price, but another person involved in vaccine negotiations said it was about $ 10 per dose.

Pfizer did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

With J&J and Pfizer offers, the government will have enough vaccines for 41 million people, out of a population of about 60 million.

It has also made a down payment of up to 12 million doses from the COVAX facility, the global vaccine distribution system led by the World Health Organization and partners including the Gavi Vaccine Alliance. Officials say the country will also participate in a vaccination plan for the African Union.

It is not clear if the doses from COVAX and AU would be of a single vaccine, a double shot or a mixture of both.

Health experts have called on the government to increase vaccinations in light of predictions that Africa’s most industrialized country will be hit by a “third wave” of infections in the southern hemisphere’s winter months.

South Africa’s vaccination campaign was hit in early February when it launched a plan to start vaccinations with AstraZeneca’s vaccine after a small study showed that it offered minimal protection against mild to moderate COVID-19 caused by the dominant local coronavirus variant.

The government then switched to the J&J vaccine in an “implementation study” to begin protecting front-line health workers with limited doses. As of April 4, almost 270,000 health workers had received the J&J vaccine.

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