Doubts hang over SA’s readiness for Covid vaccine

As soon as Covid-19 vaccines arrive, they will have to be transported and stored at temperatures as low as -700C, depending on which one South Africa gets.

Large depots should have already been built and a massive fleet of freezer trucks matching the temperature requirements will be needed.

Most importantly, said epidemiologist Dr Jo Barnes, these doses will have to be used within a few days or they will be worthless.

At an estimated R600 a dose, South Africa can ill afford to fail to prepare for a massive Covid-19 vaccine rollout, with less than a year to do so.

The readiness of African countries to carry out history’s biggest global vaccine drive was at concerning low levels, according to Dr Matshidiso Moeti from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

This trend could change drastically within the next few months as WHO doubles up on efforts to help 40 African countries iron out their vulnerabilities in preparation for the fragile and expensive endeavour.

South Africa’s provinces with vast rural areas could be the country’s weakest link, said Barnes, in carrying out the many controls demanded of this mass vaccine rollout.

Poor road infrastructure, under-resourced health facilities and poverty in general could mean expensive mistakes which could jeopardise South Africa’s fight to control the scourge.

“The Pfizer vaccine has to be transported and stored at -700C, which is extremely low. We don’t have, outside of a few in research labs, those kinds of storage facilities. The Moderna one is slightly less strict, requiring to be stored at -200C, which is the usual temperature of the freezers we have,” said Barnes.

Government may also have to police and finance the behaviour of vaccine recipients, otherwise with most of the vaccines requiring more than one dose at intervals, patients may fail to complete the process.

This was among the biggest threats posed by conditions in rural areas.

“I believe the provinces with the most clinics without running water and toilets are in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.

“And the number of clinics in the outer lying areas have large numbers of people and we don’t want them to get Covid-19 because it will leave big holes in our coverage,” Barnes said.

Government has allocated about R500 million to the process of getting South Africa higher up on the list of countries to obtain vaccines first.

Barnes said South Africa was unlikely to receive the full 60 million doses it needed to carry out the drive.

She said some heavy ethical questions have to be dealt with in preparation for all possibilities: who will get the vaccines first; which areas will be prioritised, and why?

Forty African countries shared data with WHO, assessing their readiness. In turn, the organisation assessed their readiness, concluding that most countries’ readiness level was around 33%, well below the desired benchmark of 80%.

“With three Covid-19 vaccine candidates demonstrating high levels of efficacy, many countries are keen on getting the vaccine on time,” said Moeti during a briefing yesterday.

“We do know that African countries are concerned, hoping that the pre-order of millions of doses of vaccines by wealthy countries will not disadvantage their access to supplies.

“As the Covid-19 vaccine is rolled out in phases, it will turn into the biggest vaccination drive in the continent and, indeed, the history of the world.”

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