Mandatory vaccination is possible if authorities are well organised: HSRC

The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) says mandatory vaccination is possible if the authorities are well organised.

Health Minister Joe Phaahla recently said he was hopeful a decision on mandatory vaccination would be made before the end of this month as vaccine uptake remained low.

He said the government’s main priority remained to vaccinate all adults, at least up to 70% coverage.

Dr Phaahla said he agreed with experts that COVID-19 was moving towards becoming an endemic disease. He says South Africa is ready for this.

The country’s COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped further and now stands at 9.3% after 1 691 new cases were recorded.

Chief research specialist at the HSRC, Dr Vuyo Mjimba says, “The biggest issue here is to be organised, ensure that we sort out the issues of vaccination certificates, make sure that the vaccines are available widely and people don’t have to walk far to get them and there’s enough doses to go around.”

“Those who want to vaccinate versus those who feel that it’s their choice not to be vaccinated, I think in my view, those who want to vaccinate far outnumber those who don’t [want to vaccinate]. I think that it is possible to get that herd immunity that we also talk about,” adds Mjimba.

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