South African pharmaceutical company Aspen, which packages Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in South Africa, has announced that it will deliver its first batch of locally manufactured vaccine today.
Aspen “is pleased to confirm that the first delivery of Johnson & Johnson’s covid-19 vaccine to South Africa” will be made today, the company announced in a statement, without specifying how much vaccine will be delivered.
The company described this delivery as a “significant milestone” in the history of South Africa and Africa in general because “these are the first covid-19 vaccines produced on the African continent, by an African company and for African patients.”
Aspen produces its vaccines at its factory in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in the south of the country.
South Africa has recently accelerated its vaccination programme, with 6.3 million injections given and 10% of the population having at least one dose of vaccine.
Initially limited to those over the age of 35, the vaccination will be open to everyone over the age of 18 from 01 September.
Last week, BioNTech and Pfizer signed an agreement with South Africa’s Biovac to produce covid-19 vaccines in Cape Town.
After announcing a 20% drop in the average daily number of new covid-19 cases, the South African president announced Sunday night the lifting of the ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages, as well as the easing of other restrictions due to the pandemic.
“The latest figures suggest that we are well past the peak of the third wave of infections, although there are areas in the country where we still need to be concerned because infection rates have not yet shown signs of decline,” Ramaphosa said.
The government is allowing retail sales of alcohol to resume from Monday to Thursday, while bars and restaurants will also be allowed to sell alcohol.
Schools have fully reopened, and social and religious gatherings for up to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors are allowed again. The night curfew has been reduced to between 22:00 and 04:00.
Ramaphosa also announced the reinstatement of a monthly emergency aid of 350 rand for unemployed South Africans until next March. According to the country’s official statistics, an estimated two million jobs have been lost since last year due to the pandemic.
While new confirmed cases are decreasing in South Africa, many other countries in Africa are seeing covid.19 cases increase, driven by the Delta variant.
To accelerate its mass vaccination campaign, South Africa will begin giving vaccines during weekends and make them available to younger residents, aged 18 and over, from September 1. Currently, the vaccines are limited to people aged 35 and above.
“In the coming weeks, we will substantially increase the vaccination rate,” Ramaphosa said.
