Financial Mail reports that according to experts, SA will have enough vaccines to weather the Covid storm.

But whether they arrive ahead of winter or by the end of the year, and whether those who most need the shots will get them first, will likely pose bigger problems than the supply. Overall, there’s been a general lack of information from the government about timelines for its vaccine rollout. Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has not yet specified when SA will receive 11-million doses of its vaccine — a single shot that doesn’t require extreme cold storage and has been shown to prevent death from Covid. Those close to the process say 2.8-million doses will arrive between April and June, but no more are likely to arrive until winter, when Covid-19 infections may spike. Pfizer is set to have about 2.8-million doses of its two-shot vaccine ready for SA from the end of March. But as of Tuesday, the government and Pfizer had yet to sign an agreement. Aspen’s Stavros Nicolaou, who is working with Business for SA on the vaccine rollout and the private sector response, cautions that SA won’t get enough vaccines by winter, when people "cuddle and huddle" and are confined indoors, which drives up transmission of the virus. It is for this reason that Dr Aslam Dasoo, leader of the Progressive Health Forum, is pushing for the private sector to be permitted to buy its own vaccines now — provided they are distributed to those most at risk. In the longer term, though, SA was unlikely to have "a dearth of vaccines", said Nicolaou.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Katharine Child at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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