South Africa approves Chinese vaccine amid third wave of COVID-19

BEIJING – South African authorities have approved the COVID-19 vaccine made by China's Sinovac, the government said on Saturday.

"The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has authorised the CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by Sinovac Life Sciences Co., and imported by Curanto Pharma (Pty) Ltd. The authorisation was done in terms of Section 21 of the Medicines and Related Substance Act 101 of 1965, a mechanism in the Medicines Act that enables emergency use access and also enables SAHPRA to authorise a medicine subject to certain conditions," the South African Health Products Authority (SAHPRA) said in a statement.

The two-dose vaccine is best administered to people aged between 18 and 59 years, the statement added.

In June, CoronaVac was validated by the World Health Organisation for emergency use in other countries.

During the past 24 hours, South Africa hit a record of 24,000 new COVID-19 cases in one day bringing the total number of cases to over 2 million. Over 5% of South Africans have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccines and only 0.8% both after the country had to destroy 2 million contaminated Johnson & Johnson doses.