Johannesburg, April 14 In response to the outside world’s accusations about the progress of COVID-19 vaccination in South Africa, South Africa’s Health Minister Mukez responded at a regular press conference on the 14th that he and other officials did not “sleep at work”.
Since the first batch of COVID-19 vaccination began on February 17, South Africa has completed vaccinations for nearly 290,000 medical workers. However, this progress is far from the goal of completing 1 million vaccinations in mid-May. In particular, the South African government suspended the vaccination of Johnson & Johnson on the evening of April 13, which made the outside world worried about the current vaccination progress.
Mukez revealed that the South African Ministry of Health had previously ordered 31 million COVID-19 vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, of which 11 million have been completed by agreement and payment process.” We can guarantee that officials of the South African Ministry of Health are not asleep at work, that we complete these agreements with vaccine manufacturers in accordance with the principle of sequential priority, and that our ultimate goal is to obtain sufficient vaccines and achieve universal immunization.” He reiterated that although the use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been temporarily suspended, the South African government still hopes that Johnson & Johnson can deliver the vaccine scheduled by the South African government on time, thus ensuring the smooth progress of vaccination in South Africa.
As of the press time of the press release, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South Africa has reached 1,559,960, and the number of deaths has reached 53,423, both of which rank first in the African region.
