The Sinovac coronavirus vaccine will now be included in South Africa’s COVID-19 inoculation arsenal.
The National Coronavirus Command Council has approved its use.
New Health Minister Joe Phaahla on Friday gave an update on the country’s response to the pandemic.
Phaahla said the AstraZeneca jab was also on the cards for the country.
“It was also approved that within our arsenal, we must also include the Sinovac vaccine, which has been conditionally approved by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority but also that AstraZeneca vaccine, which has now been shown to be effective against the Delta variant, that we should also look at bringing it back,” he said.
Phaahla said the government was keeping a close eye on provinces that were seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases.
In particular, focus was on the Western Cape, which recorded 4,097 new cases on Thursday.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has reported 13,777 new COVID-19 cases in the country in the past 24-hour reporting period.
Phaahla said he’d be visiting the Western Cape in the coming days.
“We need to work with the province of the Western Cape, make sure that they can be able to do all the tried and tested measures in terms of containment of the infections, make sure that they have the ready bed capacity, all the consumables – the oxygen, and all other necessities,” he added.
-EWN
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