Durban - The second batch of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine is expected to arrive from Belgium in South Africa on Saturday.
An SAA plane with four cabin crew left for Brussels on Wednesday night. The batch contains 80 000 doses of the vaccine.
During a Parliamentary debate on the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said the country has joined more than 87 other countries in the next phase of the fight against Covid-19.
According to statistics released by the Department of Health yesterday, ((thurs)) 41 809 health-care workers have been vaccinated against Covid-19 under the Sisonke Protocol.
KwaZulu-Natal kick-started its first phase of the roll-out programme using the J&J vaccine last week. Health workers at the Prince Mshiyeni and Albert Luthuli hospitals were first in line to receive the vaccine.
Mkhize said that efforts were under way to procure more vaccines.
Another 500 000 doses of the J&J vaccine were expected to arrive in four weeks and about 500 000 Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses were also expected next month.
The minister said 7 million doses were expected from Pfizer by June. The company is expected to provide the country with a total of 20 million doses.
"Agreements are close to being concluded. We have procured enough doses to cover most South Africans during discussions. We are not at all anxious that we might run into problems in the programme," Mkhize said.
Of concern, however, was the danger of fake news in the fight against Covid-19 and the vaccination plan.
Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande said he believed that while social media was beneficial for communicating, it could be easily hijacked to spread false claims about inoculation.
“While people are facing the real threat of losing their lives, fake news and misinformation are causing them to be paranoid, to doubt the usefulness of vaccines and other public health interventions,” Nzimande said.
Professor Priscilla Reddy from the Human Sciences Research Council said the pandemic has had a profound social impact on all South Africans and people across the globe.
“If the myths are not dealt with, we will find that vaccination coverage will fall short of the 67% that is targeted,”she said.
Reddy said fake news could lead to further mutation of the new variant and reluctance from citizens to accept the vaccine.
“Myths concerning vaccines are damaging. Even as the availability of vaccines increases, if people don’t accept the vaccine because of these myths, you’re not going to win the battle,” Reddy said.
Reddy said the negative aspects of vaccines tend to get more publicity compared to factual information. She warned that unclear messages from government or any health-care organisation will adversely weaken adherence to lockdown measures.
The Daily News