South Africa unveils vaccine strategy, but struggles to secure doses

South African officials unveiled a national coronavirus vaccine roll-out strategy on Sunday, amid mounting criticism over the response to the pandemic.

In a televised address, Health Minister Zwelini Mkhize introduced the task team entrusted to oversee the strategy but revealed that South Africa was still in negotiations to secure vaccines.

The South African government has previously been criticised for its failure to secure badly needed vaccines for a country with more than one million infections - Africa's highest - and a death toll of almost 30,000.

South Africa is part of the COVAX facility, a collaboration among poorer nations to secure vaccines through collective negotiation. This will allow it to secure vaccine doses for 10 per cent of the population by the second quarter of 2021.

This first phase of the roll-out will be used to vaccinate frontline health workers. Still, there was no firm date of delivery on the vaccine secured by the COVAX, said Mkhize.

The second phase of the vaccine roll-out will target the elderly, essential workers and citizens with health conditions that make them vulnerable to the coronavirus. The third phase will focus on adults around the country in order to vaccinate a total of 67 per cent of the population.

The second phase of the vaccine roll-out will rely on doses bought directly from manufacturers, with whom South African officials are still negotiating.