University of KwaZulu-Natal Health Professor, Mosa Moshabela, says the healthcare sector may experience challenges in vaccinating all healthcare workers before the potential third coronavirus wave emerges.
This after Health Minister Zweli Mkhize announced on Thursday that South Africa aims to vaccinate over one million people against COVID-19 by the end of the month.
Addressing Parliament, Mkhize said the healthcare sector may have to consider inoculating more than the original target of 40 million people to reach herd immunity.
Moshabela says there may be challenges in achieving the vaccination targets.
“It’s a very ambitious target. It looks like we are set to vaccinate 80 000 people over a two week period and I doubt that we can really seek to expect a million by the end of March. I think that was the original plan, we should have been given a more realistic plan when the AstraZeneca vaccine option fell off and we went with Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But it looks like it is going to be a challenge … vaccinating all healthcare workers before the potential third wave emerges,” says Moshabela.
Below is Moshabela’s full interview of SAfm Sunrise:
On Thursday, the Department of Health Deputy Director-General Anban Pillay stressed the importance of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus both as individuals and communities to achieve protection and population immunity.
Pillay and Dr Mkhize briefed the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on government’s vaccine acquisition and rollout strategy.
The video below discusses the vaccine rollout in South Africa:
