The vaccines arrived in South Africa on Tuesday night at the OR Tambo International Airport.

The office of the premier Job Mokgoro, the Health MEC Madoda Sambatha, and senior government officials, as well as key stakeholders, will receive the vaccines in the province. 

It is expected that 34 000 frontline health workers, including nurses and doctors from both public and private sector, will be vaccinated in the first phase of the provinces' rollout plan.

The country was expected to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccines from India but all plans were stalled when it was discovered that the vaccine is not effective to deal with the country's variant of Covid-19.

The national government has reportedly asked the Serum Institute of India to take back the one million Covid-19 vaccine doses the company had sent in early February.

Meanwhile, Sambatha is said to have toured the province to assess the readiness of health facilities and to ensure that vaccine storage is adequate and secure.

 OFM News