SA vaccine campaign an ‘unforgivable failure’ - Steenhuisen
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen has slammed the lack of progress made by government to inoculate South Africans against Covid-19.
His comments come as the Department of Health began rolling out vaccines to teachers and support staff on Wednesday.
Government expects to inoculate some 500 0000 people in the education sector over the next month.
But Steenhuisen says more needs to be done.
"South Africa’s vaccine programme has been a disgraceful, unforgivable failure so far. Secretive, slow, disorganised, and fatal.
"A full 15 months into the pandemic less than 1% of South Africans have been fully vaccinated, according to statistics shared by the Presidency’s head of digital communications.
"This puts us far behind not just our upper-middle-income peer countries but also lower-middle-income and many poor countries."
South Africa has only vaccinated 0,8% of the population since the start of the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
Steenhuisen has called for an immediate ban on indoor gatherings to minimise the surge of the virus.
"Properly enforce restrictions on indoor gatherings and taxis.
"Properly enforce mask, sanitation, and social-distancing protocols and ventilation requirements. Ensure all taxis travel with all windows open.
"Enforce an open windows rule at high schools, it is far cheaper and easier to prevent infection than to treat it and government needs to be prepared to take a differentiated approach in the country if losses are to be minimised."
Also Read