Johannesburg: 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 Sunday, 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, 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, Maja said.
Health Minister Zweli…