Vaccines made in South Africa to stay in Africa, says envoy

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA
Associated Press

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Vaccine doses produced by a plant in South Africa will no longer be exported to Europe after the intervention of South Africa’s government, the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccine envoy said Thursday. Strive Masiyiwa told reporters that South African drug manufacturer Aspen, which has a contract with Johnson & Johnson to assemble the ingredients of its COVID-19 vaccine, will no longer ship vaccine doses out of the continent and that millions of doses warehoused in Europe will be returned to the continent. He said the arrangement to export to Europe vaccine doses finished in South Africa “has been suspended.” Masiyiwa said that J&J doses produced in South Africa “will stay in Africa and will be distributed in Africa.”