The Minister of Agriculture, Mr John Steenhuisen, today at OR Tambo International oversaw the arrival of the first consignment of one million high-potency Foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccines, strengthening South Africa’s expanding vaccination effort already underway in affected areas.

This shipment from Biogénesis Bagó in Argentina, forms part of a sustained supply pipeline, with further consignments scheduled to arrive over the coming weeks, including vaccine sourced from BVI in Botswana and Dollvet in Turkey.

By end of March a total of over five million vaccines will have entered the country from the three international suppliers.

Locally, the Agriculture Research Council (ARC) has committed to produce 20 000 vaccines per week and scaling up to 200 000 per week in 2027.

The additional doses will allow authorities to scale up from targeted outbreak response to broader suppression of viral circulation in high-risk regions.

The million doses of vaccine will be distributed as follow: KwaZulu-Natal 200 000 doses; Mpumalanga 100 000 doses; North West 100 000 doses; Free State 200 000 doses; Eastern Cape 150 000 doses; Limpopo 100 000 doses; Gauteng 70 000 doses; Northern Cape 50 000 doses; and Western Cape 30 000 doses.