Having received finer pricing details from COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers over the past month, organised business is currently estimating that it will cost about R12bn to vaccinate 70% of South Africa’s adult population – well below government’s earlier and heavily criticised estimate of R20bn.
Mining Weekly reports that Business for South Africa (B4SA) steering committee chairperson Martin Kingston has stressed, however, that both business and government were in agreement that, while the cost of the vaccine was a factor, it was “immaterial relative to the damage being caused to the economy when we are not able to operate at full capacity”.
Kingston said there was also agreement that South Africa needed to move “as quickly and aggressively” as possible in rolling out the vaccine to mitigate the effects of possible future COVID-19 waves, following a devastating second wave that took hold in December and January.
“There will be no end to the pandemic, nor the beginning of an economic recovery without a comprehensive, effective and urgent national vaccination programme. The cost of a vaccination programme is dwarfed by the human and economic cost of an unchecked COVID-19 pandemic."
Discovery Health’s Dr Ronald Whelan said that to reach 70% coverage, or the vaccination of 40m people, South Africa would need to procure between 55m and 60m doses, with several vaccines requiring two doses. The final cost of those doses would depend on the mix of vaccines procured by government, which is the sole acquirer.
“The good news is that the price assumptions are coming down and that’s part of the reason that we are seeing a programme that’s looking a lot more affordable than if you had perhaps looked at it in the beginning of December,” Whelan said, reporting that far more refined pricing details had been provided in recent weeks by various manufacturers.
Mining Weekly reports that funding for the programme would arise from a combination of National Treasury budget allocations and medical scheme contributions.
Although the funding flows and reimbursement model between government, medical schemes and vaccination sites was yet to be finalised.
[link url="https://www.miningweekly.com/article/r12bn-cost-of-vaccination-roll-out-immaterial-relative-to-covids-economic-cost-2021-02-03"]Full Mining Weekly report (Open access)[/link]