In a sign the government is pinning its hopes on a swift coronavirus vaccine rollout to save lives and jobs, the Treasury has set aside R9bn in the medium term for the national immunisation drive and indicated it is willing to spend more than twice as much should the need arise.
While stopping short of laying out specifics, the Treasury also indicated it expects some funding for the national vaccination programme to come from the private sector.
“Since the state is procuring vaccines on behalf of both the public and private sectors, some revenue will return to the fiscus when private providers buy vaccines from the state,” it said in the Budget Review. The Treasury and the health department have yet to agree on a mechanism for this.
Vaccination would save lives and support the complete reopening of the economy, which remains partially shuttered in response to the coronavirus pandemic, said the Treasury. “Over time, as global lockdowns are phased out in response to vaccination efforts, SA will benefit from the resumption of international goods trade and a resurgence in tourism,” it said.
The government’s three-phase strategy aims to inoculate 67% of the population, or 40-million people, over the next 12 months. The first phase, which got under way on February 18, aims to inoculate 1.25-million health-care workers. Phase 2 targets 16-million adults, including essential workers (2.5-million); people living in congregate settings (1.1-million); people over 60 (5-million); and adults with comorbidities that place them at increased risk of severe Covid-19 (8-million), while phase 3 aims to reach the remaining adult population (22.5-million).
Finance minister Tito Mboweni said the government will establish a no-fault compensation fund to cover claims “in the unlikely event of any severe vaccine injuries”, an important development that will make it easier to finalise deals with manufacturers.
Small deal
Treasury chief director for health and social welfare Mark Blecher said discussions are still under way on where to locate the fund in the government. Legislation will be required to bring it into effect.
The Treasury has allocated R1.3bn for the current fiscal year to buy vaccines. So far, only one relatively small deal with the Serum Institute of India has been concluded, but two much larger deals with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer are close to being finalised, said health minister Zweli Mkhize.
The health department procured 1.5-million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine from the Serum Institute, and secured a commitment from J&J for 9-million doses of its single-shot jab and 20-million doses of Pfizer’s double-shot vaccine.
“Given the uncertainty around final costs, an estimated R9bn could be drawn from the contingency reserve and emergency allocations, bringing total potential vaccine spending to about R19.3bn” said the Treasury.
Of the R9bn allocated for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, R6.5bn is allocated to the department of health to procure and distribute the shots, R2.4bn is set aside for provincial health departments to administer them, R50m is allocated to the Government Communication and Information System to run communication campaigns, and R100m will be provided to the Medical Research Council (MRC) for research.
The MRC, in partnership with the health department, is running an implementation study of J&J’s Covid-19 vaccine. The study was launched after the government suspended its planned rollout of AstraZeneca’s shot, in the wake of a small clinical trial in SA that found the shots offered minimal protection against mild to moderate disease caused by the dominant 501Y.V2 variant. The study, which is restricted to health-care workers, was devised as a bridging mechanism until other vaccines are available.
There is no data on how much protection AstraZeneca’s vaccine offers against severe illness or death caused by the 501Y.V2 variant.
By Tuesday night SA had recorded more than 1.5-million cases of Covid-19 and more than 494,000 deaths. Altogether 32,315 vaccines had been administered to health-care workers.
So far vaccines are being dispensed at only 18 public hospitals, but the number of sites is expected to rise next week.
SA received an initial shipment of 80 000, doses of J&J’s shot. The next consignment is due to arrive on Saturday, said Mkhize.
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