‘Enough vaccines for the entire country’

THERE was no need for provinces to buy Covid-19 vaccines, as the national government had procured them centrally for the whole country, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said yesterday. Instead, the provinces should get their resources ready in terms of logistics, and provide and adequately train staff.

“There is no need for provinces to buy their own vaccines.

“If they did, that would amount to fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” Mkhize said.

Mkhize made the statement in response to questions while he was briefing Parliament’s health portfolio committee.

“As the national government, we bought on behalf of the country after having calculated the needs of the provinces,” Mkhize said.

He also said there was no need to worry about contingencies, and that this had been communicated to the Western Cape administration.

“We made it clear that all their needs were catered for, and there was no need for a shortfall,” he said about a meeting with Premier Alan Winde and Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo.

“The amounts we order are such that they are contingent on their own. We have to wait for batches to be distributed, and every province will get as many as possible,” he said.

Mkhize insisted that provinces should rather bolster their logistical resources and ensure the adequate provision and training of staff for the roll-out of the vaccines.

“The last thing to have is vaccines sitting in the fridges,” he said.

The minister defended the government’s decision to give the public five days to comment on the regulations establishing the No-Fault Compensation Fund.

Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma published the regulations on April 15, and the deadline for submissions was April 19.

Mkhize said they were going through discussions and consultation, as they were not ready to publish the regulations in January.

“We gave five days’ notice for comment, (because) we needed to confirm to the manufacturers that when we start, we will be able to get vaccine,” he said.

“We had an agreement that until April 30 we would have published information on the No-Fault Compensation Fund, and that the fund be set up before April 30.

“We did not feel we needed to wait until the last day for manufacturers to wait before starting to release vaccines, to make sure everything is properly aligned,” Mkhize said.

It was hoped, through the publishing of the No-Fault Compensation Fund regulations, that people would understand that they were protected, so that no one who was exposed to a risk was left without redress.