The South African government will store the 1.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine that it will receive from India in the next few weeks at a secret place because of the risk of theft for sale at black market prices, according to a media report.
“The vaccines are a highly-rated commodity once they’re stolen and reach the black market,” Department of Health spokesperson Popo Maja told the weekly City Press on January 10, adding that if this occurs, there is a risk that the prices of these illegally-obtained vaccines will be hiked significantly.
“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,” Mr. Maja said.
“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,” Mr. Maja said.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize…