South Africa said it will broaden COVID-19 vaccines rollout to health care workers and people over the age of 60 starting Monday.
The government will start a mass vaccination effort at 87 sites across the country using Pfizer Inc. doses administered to frontline health care workers and the elderly, Zweli Mkhize, the health minister said in an online briefing Sunday. The rollout is kicking off at a slower pace and will be stepped up over the coming days, Mkhize said.
South Africa expects more deliveries of the Pfizer vaccine Sunday night, raising the number to 975,780 doses. Deliveries from Pfizer are expected to rise to more than 4 million doses by end of June and these would be complemented with 2.2 million doses from Johnson & Johnson, Mkhize said.
South Africa has been slower to roll out its vaccination program than many other African countries and had only inoculated 478,452 health-care workers as of May 15 through a Johnson & Johnson study.
