Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, has announced the creation of a Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) that will focus on Coronavirus vaccine development.<\/p>\n
Mkhize made the announcement in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n
“In addition to the multi-sectoral MAC focusing on community mobilisation, another MAC has been created to focus on Coronavirus vaccine development,\u201d Mkhize said.<\/p>\n
The team will advise government on all matters about the Coronavirus vaccine development and rollout, and monitor and report on progress in candidate studies.<\/p>\n
It will also give guidelines on purchasing options and will study the feasibility for the country to manufacture vaccines in future.<\/p>\n
“This will ensure that the Department of Health and government are kept abreast on all critical developments internationally relating to the vaccine,\u201d Mkhize said.<\/p>\n
Professor Barry Schoub, who is an expert in vaccinology and virology, will chair the committee.<\/p>\n
The other members include Biovac CEO Dr Morena Makhoana; Department of Science and Technology\u2019s Glaudina Loots; South African Health Products Authority CEO, Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela and Vaccines for Africa\u2019s Professor Greg Hussey.<\/p>\n
Immunologist and South African Health Products Regulatory Authority board member Professor Jeff Mphahlele; World Health Organisation\u2019s expert advisor Professor Helen Rees; Ethicist\u2019s Professor Ames Dhai and National Treasury\u2019s Dr Mark Blecher are also on the MAC.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Professor Salim Abdool Karim and Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana will be observers.<\/p>\n
Reconfigured MAC<\/strong><\/p>\n The Minister said with the changing pattern of the pandemic, government has deemed it necessary to reconfigure the existing Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19.<\/p>\n The reconfigured MAC, the Minister said, would take into account the need for the inclusion of social and behavioural scientists, among other considerations.<\/p>\n The Health Department has confirmed that the number of COVID-19 infections is declining, along with the demand for hospital beds and oxygen.<\/p>\n \u201cUndeniably, an important contributor to the decline we are witnessing in the transmission of Coronavirus is the action of ordinary South Africans, who continue to adhere to non-pharmaceutical interventions,\u201d Mkhize acknowledged.<\/p>\n \u201cThis nation has shown that with concerted effort and solidarity it is possible to beat Coronavirus.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he continued to urge citizen to adopt the \u201cnew normal\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we are to maintain this status quo of low transmission rates, we must continue to concentrate on the simple things that keep Coronavirus at bay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He has called on people to wash their wash or sanitise their hands, maintain a safe distance between each other, regular cleaning and sanitising of surfaces, and wearing of masks in public.<\/p>\n \u201cThe threat of a resurgence that could be more devastating than the first wave of infections remains very real. We must always remember this,\u201d said Mkhize. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, has announced the creation of a Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) that will focus on Coronavirus vaccine development. Mkhize made the announcement in a statement on Monday. “In addition to the multi-sectoral MAC focusing on community mobilisation, another MAC has been created to focus on Coronavirus vaccine development,\u201d Mkhize said. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-165826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}