Deputy President David Mabuza says the country needs to speed up COVID-19  vaccinations in order to reach the target of  70% of the adult population by December. He was speaking at the Durban launch of the Vooma Vaccination Programme at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.

The campaign is aimed at enticing people to get vaccinated so that large concerts and sports events can be held again.

More than 18.5 million vaccines have been administered to more than 13.1 million South Africans.

This means just over 33% have been fully vaccinated.

Mabuza says no more than 200 000 people are vaccinated per day.

“Just over 9.2 million are now fully vaccinated. We are on course. We are slow; we need to energise this journey. We need to move a bit faster. We must increase speed in order for us to reach our target of 70% (of the) adult population by the end of December this year. This is the target that we have set for ourselves as a country, so that we must work hard and reach it. This translates to 300 000 jabs in arms on a daily basis as a target set by the president.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the Vooma Vaccination Programme earlier this month: 

Meanwhile, Mabuza says KwaZulu-Natal has vaccinated just over 2.1 million people, or 29% of its adult population of more than 7.2 million. He says the vaccination programme needs to be taken to the people in an effort to reach the target.

“The areas that currently lag behind are townships and farming communities. The province needs to intensify its efforts in this regard and take vaccination sites to where the people are, be it in the farms, in the villages, and everywhere else. We do commend the province for engaging with farm owners to allow farmworkers time off for vaccination. We are confident that this will have the desired impact and can turn the tide. ”

Deputy President David Mabuza engages with the sporting fraternity to get people vaccinated: