<p>JOHANNESBURG — South Africa will restrict the sale of alcohol and limit the size of religious and social gatherings over Easter to prevent the holiday from contributing to a new surge of COVID-19, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Tuesday. </p>
<p>“Given the role of alcohol in fuelling reckless behavior, we will put in place some restrictions over the Easter weekend," Ramaphosa said in an address broadcast nationwide.</p>
<p>He said retail sales of alcohol will be banned Friday through Monday. Bars and restaurants will be able to sell alcoholic beverages but will be required to close at 11 p.m.</p>
<p>A maximum of 250 people will be allowed at indoor religious gatherings while 500 people are allowed for outdoor events.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa’s announcement came after he consulted health experts and religious leaders on Tuesday to discuss ways to curb the spread of new infections.</p>
<p>South Africa now has a cumulative number of more than 1.5 million infections since the outbreak of the virus last year, the highest in Africa. A total of 52,788 people have died from COVID-19 in the country.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa said his government is doing everything possible to expand the country’s vaccine campaign.</p>
<p>So far South Africa has vaccinated just over 251, 000 health care workers as part of a Johnson & Johnson study, far short of 1.25 million health workers to be vaccinated as part of the first phase of the country’s vaccination program.</p>
<p>The second phase will see vaccinations of the elderly and those with co-morbidities, which Ramaphosa said would begin in mid-May.</p>
<p>“Although there have been delays in securing vaccine supplies, we are still confident in achieving our vaccination targets," he said.</p>
<p>“We have secured 11 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which we know to be effective against the dominant variants in our country,” said Ramaphosa. He said South Africa is finalizing a further order of 20 million doses of the J&J vaccine.</p>
<p>South Africa is also about to sign a contract to purchase 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine but they are only expected to arrive in the second half of the year, he said. Together, the J&J and Pfizer vaccines will provide South Africa with enough doses to vaccinate 41 million of the country’s population of 60 million, he said. </p>
<p>On Monday Ramaphosa announced that a vaccine manufacturing facility in South Africa would provide 30 million doses for the country and 220 million for the rest of the continent.</p>
<p>The Aspen Pharmacare sterile manufacturing facility, which is based in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape province, is to begin producing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and is expected to start delivering these batches next month, he said. The facility will receive large batches of the components of the J&J vaccine, blend them and then put them in vials and package them, a process called fill and finish. </p>
<p>Aspen will produce 30 million J&J doses for South Africa and more than 220 million doses that will be sold to other African countries, Ramaphosa said.</p>
<p>The $200 million Aspen facility has the capacity to produce 300 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine annually, he said.</p>
<p>The government has faced criticism over the slow rollout of its vaccination program, which is lagging in its efforts to vaccinate 67% of its population this year. With the slow delivery of vaccines, mass vaccinations have not yet started, making unlikely the target can be reached this year.</p>
<p>The country’s rollout program was affected when it had to sell its batch of 1 million AstraZeneca vaccines which were shown to be less effective against the variant of the virus that is now dominant in the country.</p>
