South Africa receives second batch of J&J vaccines
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The single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine has been shown to be 82 per cent effective
South Africa's second tranche of 80,000 Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine from Brussels touched down at OR Tambo International airport on Saturday morning.
The second batch of vaccines is reserved for frontline healthcare workers. The single-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine has been shown to be 82 per cent effective in preventing severe illness from the COVID variant first discovered in South Africa.
The jabs have been taken to a secure facility in Gauteng from where it will be distributed to vaccine centres in provinces.
This second batch of vaccines is part of 500,000 jabs South Africa is getting for research purposes.
By the end of Friday, the country had used 63,648 vaccines out of the 80,000 that arrived in the country on February 01. The health department says about 12,000 health workers are getting vaccinated in a day now.
As of February 26, South Africa recorded 1.5 million positive cases and 49,784 deaths, government statistics showed.