South Africa: Country secures central place for COVID-19 consignment, fears black marketing

"The vaccines are a highly-rated commodity once they're stolen and reach the black market."


Devdiscourse News Desk | Johannesburg | Updated: 11-01-2021 11:43 IST | Created: 11-01-2021 11:43 IST
South Africa: Country secures central place for COVID-19 consignment, fears black marketing
Representative Image Image Credit: ANI
  • Country:
  • South Africa

The COVID-19 jabs that would be received in near future by the South African government will be stored in safe places since the country fears black marketing and possible thefts, according to a report by NDTV.

Reportedly, South Africa is expecting the delivery of COVID-19 jabs in the next few weeks from India, which speculates chances of mishandling if not handled or secured properly. As stated by Pop Maja, the media aide for the Department of Health, "the vaccines are a highly-rated commodity once they're stolen and reach the black market", which might cause a hike in prices of illegally obtained vaccines.

"There will be a central place where the consignment will be stored and from where we will distribute it to hospital and clinic pharmacies that can store it," said Maja.

He further added that the country has been warned about the theft already, "there's a security issue too because countries which have already begun rolling out the vaccines have warned us that there is a huge theft of it, so we may not even disclose where it is being centrally stored".

Reportedly stating in the Parliament in South Africa, Zweli Mkhize mentioned that the country had secured over 1.5 million COVID-19 doses from AstraZeneca, from India. However, the nation has over 12,31,597 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with over 33,163 deaths and 966,368 recoveries, as per the Health Ministry.

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