Government ropes in medical schemes to secure COVID-19 vaccine

The Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize has announced that the government will be turning to medical aid schemes to help fund the procurement of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Addressing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health on Thursday, 7 January 2021, Mkhize said the country would receive 1.5 million doses of the Astra Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine within the month and that the remainder would be delivered in February.

Fisus to cover bulk of COVID-19 vaccine procurement

Mkhize said the public purse would mainly foot the bill, which is expected to amount to billions, but that other potential sources of funding would be explored, including the Solidary Fund, which was launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the start of the lockdown in March 2020.

“I think as we stand at the moment, a few points that I think are important to mention are that, for one, we have had lots of discussions with the Minister of Finance (Tito Mboweni) basically to say that the fiscus is going to carry the major burden of procuring the vaccine,” he said.

“We have also agreed that we will look to activate other means of raising additional funds, and that the second way would be to approach the medical schemes and ask them to make a contribution, which will also be on the basis of social solidarity, wherein they could also co-subsidise some of the members of the public”

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize

Another option, Mkhize said, was to get business donors to make their own contributions. Government has already forked out R327 million towards the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility, to secure a COVID-19 vaccine.

The first phase of the roll-out will target frontline healthcare workers. Phase two will cover essential service workers, persons over the age of 60 and those 18 years or older with comorbidities. The third phase will target those that are older than 18 years.

“As a country, we have an estimated 1.25 million healthcare workers both from the public and private sectors to be prioritised,” Mkhize said.

The minister further said they were pleased that the Astra Zeneca vaccine has already been approved by various regulators and is being rolled out in other countries. He has urged South Africans to be patient with government as it continues to engage manufacturers.