South African President Ramaphosa: South Africa must be self-reliant to produce vaccines

South African President Ramaphosa said on Thursday (18th) that South Africa must build its own factory to produce a local coronavirus vaccine.

Ramaphosa became the first South African to be vaccinated against Johnson & Johnson this Wednesday (17th). He said that South Africa urgently needs to develop its own capacity to develop a vaccine from now on.

Ramaphosa also said he had asked Nzimandi, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Innovation, to form a scientific team to start developing South Africa’s own vaccine to cope with current and future epidemics.