President Cyril Ramaphosa has insisted that there will be funds available for the procurement of vaccines once they start arriving in the country later this month.
The president said this was a major project and they wanted to vaccinate 40 million people.
The government has not indicated the cost for the vaccines despite Ramaphosa assuring that the issue of finances would not be a problem as the issue of fighting Covid-19 was a priority.
The Department of Health has said it has engaged with pharmaceutical companies producing vaccines including Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.
“Today we established the Inter-Ministerial Committee, which will be chaired by the deputy president, but I will chair the first meeting and set processes on the way,” said Ramaphosa.
“Financing is not going to be a problem because we will pay for the vaccines,” he said.
He said when the second wave hit the country in November, there were more than 18 000 infections a day, but that number had now dropped to less than 10 000 infections a day.
He said from last year the world had been starting to investigate manufacturing a vaccine for Covid-19.
The country’s department of health has said it wants to start vaccinating the health-care workers. They are targeting 1.25 million health-care workers.
The government wants to also deal with essential workers and other groups on the forefront of the fight against the virus to get the vaccine.
Ramaphosa said it would be a groundbreaking operation as the government want to vaccinate 40 million people later this year.