SA should participate in vaccine trials, says Mkhize

Mkhize made the comments during a virtual meeting with the Parliament’s health committee on Monday morning.

He said participating in the vaccine trials would put South Africans among the first in line when it is ready.

"We believe that South Africa should participate at that level because we have adequate clinical, technical research and expertise to be able to monitor that vaccine trial so that we have the best kind of outcome.

ALSO READ: More than 2m people screened for Covid-19 in Limpopo

"If we don't participate, it means that those countries that would've been in the forefront of the development of vaccine through their trials, would be the first ones to get access to the vaccine.”

He added: "This means that we will be at the back of the que to get this and we don't think we want to wait that long if the vaccine is proven to be efficient.”

There are currently 40 different vaccine trials being tested around the world.

 

However China, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia have all progressed to the next stage.  

 

Current projections indicate that the earliest a vaccine would be available to fight against the deadly coronavirus is Easter 2021.