At least 14 million adults in the country could have access to the Covid-19 vaccine by the second quarter of this year following an agreement signed by medical aid companies and national government to fund the vaccines.
This will include 7 million medical scheme members and an equal number of citizens who do not have medical aid cover.
According to Discovery Health whose membership represents about 6.5% of all South Africans, medical schemes have agreed to support a pricing arrangement for the vaccines which ensures that a surplus is generated to purchase the vaccines that can be used to cross-subsidise higher risk non-medical scheme members.