Cape Town - The Health Department has said it has advertised tenders for the supply of ancillary items such as needles and syringes which are needed for the country’s Covid-19 vaccination programme.
The department was commenting after Professor Glenda Gray, co-principal investigator of the Johnson & Johnson implementation study and chief executive of the South African Medical Research Council, raised concerns about the global shortage of syringes which had caused the price of syringes to go up locally.
There have been reports of countries around the world not having enough syringes to immunise their populations against Covid-19.
The department said that due to the country’s vaccination programme currently being limited to heath-care workers, and conducted through a Phase 3b study at limited sites, the demand for syringes was low.
However, it said that the global demand would increase as more vaccines become available, especially as some vaccines such as Pfizer require specific needle and syringe combinations.
Speciality syringes, called low dead space syringes, have been recommended for the Pfizer vaccine as it is able to extract six doses from a vial of the vaccine compared to a standard syringe that can only extract five doses.
The department added that to mitigate against the shortage of ancillary items, a supplementary tender had been advertised by the National Treasury for a variety of needle and syringe combinations suitable for all vaccines.
Asked about the price rise for syringes, the department said the price of ancillary items had been included in the budget allocation for the vaccination programme.
“The procurement of ancillary items occurs through contracts concluded with suppliers following an open bidding process. The actual prices will only be known after the contract award.”