South Africa, Kenya announce large purchases of COVID-19 Vaccine

South Africa buys 1.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa says it will import 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to inoculate the country's health workers. This is South Africa’s first announcement of the... AP NEWS

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa says it will import 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to inoculate the country’s health workers. This is South Africa’s first announcement of the purchase of a COVID-19 vaccine as its cases soar.

The first 1 million doses will be delivered later this month from the Serum Institute of India, followed by an additional 500,000 doses in February, Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize announced Thursday.

South Africa is not the first country on the 54-nation continent to announce a vaccine deal. Kenya’s health minister on Wednesday said the country is expected to start receiving 24 million doses next month of the AstraZeneca vaccine. And last month, Morocco announced it had ordered 65 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinopharm and Britain’s AstraZeneca.

South Africa is battling a dramatic resurgence of COVID-19 that is quickly outstripping its first peak. It announced record highs of 21,832 new confirmed cases and 844 deaths late Wednesday.

Some of South Africa’s hospitals are already reporting that they are at capacity. The rapid spread of the disease in recent weeks has been driven by a new, more infectious variant of the virus, according to medical experts.

The country of 60 million people has reported by far the most cases of the coronavirus in Africa, with more than 1.1 million confirmed infections, including 31,368 deaths, representing more than 30% of all cases on the continent of 1.3 billion.

South Africa has 1.25 million health care workers in public and private hospitals, and the government has decided they should have first priority in getting protection from COVID-19, Mkhize said. ...