Covid-19 vaccines worth billions set to be destroyed
The Health Department is set to destroy a whopping R3 billion worth of Covid-19 vaccines.
Health Minister Joe Phaahla made the announcement at a meeting of the national health council in Centurion on Thursday.
“It’s about R3 billion of the cost of the vaccines which we are going to have to dispose of," Phaahla said.
"Some of them we paid for and some of them were donated by various agencies. About seven million of those doses were donated by the Americans alone. We will lose an amount of R3 billion which will have to be destroyed.”
South Africa has seen a steady decline in the number of Covid-19 vaccines being administered since the height of the pandemic.
As demand for the jab has dropped countrywide, the government has been left with the stockpile it acquired during the peak of the pandemic.
“The current available vaccine stock purchased as part of the Covid national vaccination roll-out will expire at the end of October 2023 (Pfizer vaccine), while Johnson & Johnson vaccines doses will expire at the end of February 2024," said Phaahla.
At the same time, Phaahla urged South Africans to continue vaccinating against Covid-19.
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