Dylan Bettencourt
Contamination issues at the Johnson and Johnson plant in Baltimore may ruin the chances of South African educators being vaccinated by the end of the month.
Half a million vaccines were to be made available for educators and the support staff with vaccines having to be administered by 28 June, the Sunday Times reported.
But that goal may be at risk due to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) halting all J&J vaccine production at a plant in Baltimore. This follows an inspection in April that found several sanitary and quality control concerns.
South Africa’s Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said they registered the vaccine on 31 March, with conditions that require manufacturing under good conditions as determined by SAHPRA.
SAHPRA said the batch that was identified by the FDA was rejected but four more batches are being investigated by the US agency.
“SAHPRA is awaiting reports on whether the other batches were manufactured according to good manufacturing practice standards,” it said in a statement.
This delay in the J&J rollout will definitely prove to be a speed bump in the already slow vaccine rollout in South Africa. Only 6,886 vaccines were administered on 7 June and the government’s goal of 40 million people being fully vaccinated seems a long way away.
As of 6 June, South Africa has fully vaccinated 1,350,245 people – a total of 2,3% of the population.
Image source: @Quartz
