The World Bank Group has approved a R7.6 billion loan for South Africa’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Project.

National Treasury says these funds will now retro-actively help finance the procurement of 47-million Covid-19 vaccine doses. This is vaccine doses that were procured since the start of the pandemic, and doesn’t mean additional doses will be bought.

As of yesterday over 36.4 million Covid-19 doses have been administered in the country with about 50.3% of adults and 29.9% of 12 to 17-year-old’s vaccinated.

Ismail Momoniat, National Treasury Acting Director-General, has welcomed the loan which will also support the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme, as the spread of the virus continues to pose a threat to South Africa’s citizens, health system, and economic recovery.

The loan forms part of government efforts to reduce debt service costs by making use of cheaper sources of funding through multilateral development banks, whilst supporting the health system to respond to COVID-19 through the roll-out of vaccines, critical research, and treatment measures.