It says all vaccines are undergoing rigorous testing and monitoring will continue after the rollout.

"The assurance is coming from the fact that even if it has taken such a short time, it doesn't mean that the development process has cut the corners," said the council's Jeffrey Mphahlele.

"It followed the usual process of testing the vaccines because you start with testing in pre-clinical studies before you take the vaccine to humans and then after that, if the vaccine is safe then you do phase 1, 2 and 3 in clinical trials in humans."

Meanwhile, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority says people shouldn’t be afraid of vaccines.

The regulator says there are various clinical data requirements that a COVID-19 vaccine needs to pass.

"People shouldn't be afraid of vaccines, this has been part of the public intervention for many years," said SAHPRA chairperson, Helen Rees.

There are several coronavirus vaccine candidates currently being evaluated by South Africa's health products regulator.

eNCA