President to receive first consignment of COVID-19 vaccine
President Cyril Ramaphosa and Deputy President David Mabuza, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Vaccines, will tomorrow, 01 February 2021, receive South Africa’s first consignment of COVID-19 vaccine.
The President and Deputy President will be joined by Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize, Acting Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, High Commissioner of the Republic of India His Excellency Jaideep Sarkar and Dr Morena Makhoana, Chief Executive Officer of Biovac.
Biovac is a bio-pharmaceutical company that was formed in 2003 in a partnership between government and private investors to establish local vaccine manufacturing capability.
Biovac will play an important role in the quality assurance, warehousing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
High Commissioner Sarkar will represent India as the country of origin of the first vaccine to be rolled out in South Africa. The Serum Institute of India has been licensed to produce a vaccine that has been developed by the multinational pharmaceutical and bio pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca, in collaboration with the University of Oxford.
The arrival of the first consignment at OR Tambo International Airport marks the start of the vaccine rollout which President Ramaphosa describes as the largest and most complex logistical vaccine undertaking in South Africa’s country’s history.
The scale of delivery is unprecedented in terms of the number of people who have to be reached within a short space of time.
The aim of the vaccination programme is to achieve immunity across the population. The first phase of this rollout programme will prioritise around 1.2 million frontline health workers.
Government is coordinating the vaccine programme through the committee chaired by Deputy President, which is focused on procurement, distribution, actual vaccination, monitoring, communication and mobilisation.
Tomorrow’s arrival event will be brief, with dignitaries witnessing airline, airport, health, customs and security personnel perform their duties of ensuring that the vaccine consignment is cleared and securely transported to its cold-room destination.
The details for the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccines are as follows:
Date: 01 February 2021
Time:15h00
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) will provide a clean pool feed to all media and the proceedings will also be live streamed on government and Presidency platforms.
CLEAN POOL FEED:
Satellite Amos7 @ 4 West
Downlink 12649.5 Mhz V
Symbol Rate 2.7 MSym/s
Modulation 8PSK
Video HD H.264 @ 4.2.0
Media enquiries:
Tyrone Seale, Acting Spokesperson to President Ramaphosa
Cell: 083 575 7440
E-mail: media@presidency.gov.za
