By Sue-Ann Wayow
MANUFACTURING plants of the Covid-19 vaccines are closing down their plants as demand for the vaccine decreases.
For this reason, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is urging individuals to accept a vaccine while it is still available.
He especially urged parents of children between the ages of five to 11 to allow them to take the paediatric formula of the vaccine which expires in October this year.
The minister was speaking at the Ministry of Health virtual Covid-19 update on Wednesday.
Deyalsingh said, “When we pay attention to the global vaccine production supply chain, you are seeing that because of plummeting demand, vaccine manufacturers are now cutting back or shutting down vaccine manufacturing plants.
“Our fear is and my fear is that because we are getting out of the acute phase of the pandemic and becoming a little more relaxed, we may not be seeing a sense of urgency to get vaccinated. However, we don’t know what the future of Covid holds for us in the context of new variants.”
He said, “Don’t wait for a new variant to come on and then we rush to get vaccinated.”
According to international reports, the Serum Institute of India that has begun to reduce its vaccine output. The institute had an overstock of 200,000 million AstraZeneca vaccines. In South Africa, Aspen Pharmacare plant that supplied vaccines was also being shut down.
“Pfizer BioVac is also shutting down its vaccine manufacturing capacity because of plummeting demand,” Deyalsingh said.
Pfizer and BioNTech partnered with the Biovac Institute last July, to help manufacture their mRNA-based vaccine in South Africa.
Deyalsingh said, “When we combine the possibility of a new variant and the possibility that after October 2022, vaccines for the five to 11, may not be available and something happens and then you rush for vaccines, you may not get that vaccine.
He advised persons to show up for the administering of their second shot of the Pfizer vaccine by June 30 or those wished for a booster shot of that vaccine brand to also get theirs by June 30.
Deyalsingh especially urged the 12 to 18 age group to get the additional dose because currently, that group could only be boosted with the Pfizer vaccine.
After June 30, the vaccine’s expiry date, there will be no more Pfizer available for the population, he said.
The minister also said that at the moment, Government was not pursuing any other brand of the Covid-19 vaccine other than the ones already in stock.
He gave a breakdown of the current Covid-19 vaccine stock as at June 4:
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Sinopharm – 251, 541, expiry date, June 2023.
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Pfizer – 43, 533, expiry date, June 30, 2022 (12 and over formula)
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Johnson and Johnson – 199, 876, expiry date, May 2023 and July 2023
