Ramaphosa: The sooner we jab everyone, the better
President Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the continued clinical evidence in favour of vaccinations as the country moves to prevent another resurgence of Covid-19 infections.
The latest case numbers give some assurance that the country has overcome the worst of the third wave with a 29% decline in infections compared to a week ago.
While the third wave is now under control, experts fear that a fourth wave could hit later in the year.
On Sunday, Ramaphosa reiterated the need for government to bolster its vaccination drive, pointing to evidence in the Western Cape that shows the unvaccinated population dominate Covid hospitalisation.
The evidence is based on a report compiled by the province between 14 and 20 August this year.
“Only 30 out of 729 people above the age of 60 who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 that week had been vaccinated. This means that 699 of those were not vaccinated. And of the 292 people above the age of 60 who died from Covid-19 that week, 287 of them were not vaccinated, meaning only 5 were vaccinated,” said Ramaphosa.
“In other words, 96 per cent of the people over 60 who were hospitalised in the province and more than 98 per cent of the people over 60 who died were not vaccinated.”
He added a similar pattern has emerged in hospitals across the country.
Ramaphosa eased lockdown restrictions to level 2 on Sunday evening, with some reprieve for restaurants, the liquor industry, political parties and the religious sector.
In his address, Ramaphosa said the country is “fast becoming a vaccination site”.
“Over a quarter of all adult South Africans have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 7 million people are fully vaccinated. In the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and the Western Cape, more than 1 in 5 adults is now fully vaccinated.
“The total number of vaccine doses administered in the country now stands at 14.6 million doses. We are now administering a million doses every 4 to 5 days. Government has secured sufficient vaccines to vaccinate the entire adult population, and the supply of vaccines is no longer a constraint.
“However, we need to do much more,” he warned.
Ramaphosa admitted there were still some shortcomings in the access to the jabs but vowed to put steps in place to improve the vaccination footprint.
“We now have more than 3,000 public and private vaccination sites across the country, and most private sites will vaccinate any member of the public for free whether you have health insurance or not.
“I want to stress that the vaccination programme is open to all people in South Africa, whether or not they are South African citizens,” Ramaphosa added.
Government is also still expected to make further announcements on an approach to ‘vaccine passports’, which can be used as evidence of vaccination for various purposes and events.
Listen to Ramaphosa below:
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