All South Africans aged 18 years and older will be eligible to get their COVID-19 vaccinations from Friday, 20 August.
eNCA broadcaster Heidi Giokos broke the news on Twitter.
BREAKING: Cabinet has approved the vaccination of persons aged between 18 years and 35 years from 20 August 2021. #VaccineRolloutSA
— Heidi Giokos (@HeidiGiokos) August 19, 2021
The announcement was made by the SA’s Cabinet today, stating that it fits into part of the current plans to increase the vaccination rollout programme across the country. Cabinet also further approved to keep South Africa on Adjusted Level 3 Lockdown.
South Africa’s Health Department has set the target of fully vaccinating 70% of the adult population by December, meaning that South Africa will have to vaccinate 29 million adults to reach the target. By the end of last week, only about 10% of the population were fully vaccinated.
Previously, ITNA reported that the government was considering opening vaccinations for all adults by the end of this week, just over a week earlier than the planned 1 September date, and that this decision was to be made based on approval from Cabinet.
The news came initially from Health Minister Joe Phaahla speaking in an interview with 702’s Bongani Bingwa, who said the government was looking at opening vaccination access to over 18s sooner.
“We are in further consultations with our leadership in Cabinet. Before even the end of this week, we’ll probably open for all adults above 18,” Phaahla said, quoted by News24.
The country’s government began considering opening inoculations for all adult South Africans as the number of daily vaccines in the country began to wane over the last few weeks with vaccine hesitancy increasing, especially amongst South African men.
Anti-vaccination attitude in the country has been spreading as social media is aflood with misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Vaccines per day in SA
Vaccine numbers continue to decline for the third week in a row – not what we want to see considering that case numbers are still going up in certain provinces.
I think it's more of a demand than a supply issue with some sites remaining relatively quiet. pic.twitter.com/ikpr87PEKW— sugan naidoo (@sugan2503) August 16, 2021
By Luis Monzon
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