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Pfizer to send 4.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to South Africa

02 May 2021
 Dan Ackermann

Pfizer has committed to sending 4.5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to South Africa by June, with some 300,000 set to arrive Sunday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced.

Why it matters: South Africa is battling the worst coronavirus outbreak on the continent and has struggled with a low vaccine supply, per Bloomberg. The country is also grappling with a dangerous variant of the virus.

Details: Shipments of Pfizer doses will arrive in the country on a weekly basis until June, Mkhize said.

  • In addition to the Pfizer doses, South Africa expects for stocks of the Johnson&Johnson vaccine—the release of which paused last month following safety concerns—to be released by mid-May.

Go deeper:African countries struggle to deliver the few shots they've got

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.