Millenials set to be jabbed from September
Government says it has made headway in the country’s vaccination programme amid rising Covid-19 infections in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
The average number of daily new infections over the last week topped 12,000 - a 20% drop from the previous week.
The Northern Cape is also showing worrying trends in the rise in Delta infections.
But government has vowed to expand its vaccination drive in the coming weeks.
On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa detailed his Cabinet’s efforts to curb the virus’ deadly impact.
“As we have always said, our most effective weapon in the fight against COVID-19 is an effective and comprehensive vaccination programme. In the last few weeks, our vaccination campaign has made huge strides,” he said.
“At least 240,000 vaccine doses are now administered during the week, more than double than the number a month ago.”
Now millennials will be able to get the Covid vaccine from October.
“We will now allow people between the ages of 18 and 34 to be vaccinated from the 1st of September 2021. This will be in addition to the age groups that are currently eligible, which is everyone over 35 years of age,” Ramaphosa announced.
“We are now able to allow people to present themselves at a vaccination site without an appointment and be registered and vaccinated.”
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Ramaphosa believes the latest round of negotiations with big Pharma groups will secure enough vaccines in the short-term.
“Within the next two to three months, we are scheduled to receive around 31 million additional doses from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. This supply pipeline means that there will be sufficient vaccine doses available for the rest of the year.
“A few days ago, the Biovac Institute in Cape Town was appointed to manufacture the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for distribution within Africa.
“While there is ample supply of vaccines for the short term, we must ensure that this supply is delivered on time and without disruption.
“It is also important to monitor the emergence of new variants and to secure access to future vaccines that are adapted to these variants,” Ramaphosa added.
More than 6 million doses have been administered since the rollout of vaccines in February.
