The Health Department says 34 422 coronavirus vaccinations were administered on Saturday as government seeks to increase the number of shots given over weekends.
The Gauteng health department is among those that are expanding the number of sites. It now has 16 sites operating over weekends up from four. More than 7.5 million vaccinations have been administered in total with almost 3 million people now fully vaccinated with either two doses of the Pfizer shot, or one of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
Meanwhile, the Western Cape government has raised concerns about vaccine hesitancy in some parts of the province. Premier Alan Winde visited Mitchells Plain Community Healthcare Centre in Beacon Valley to receive his first Pfizer vaccine jab. This is in a bid to encourage people to get vaccinated.
The province reached a milestone this week of 1 million vaccines administered. Winde says government is working around the clock to reach community or herd immunity.
In the video below is the report on the Western Cape:
Pfizer vaccines arrive
Acting Health Minister Mamoloko Kubayi says the donation of 5.6 million doses of Pfizer vaccines from the US will go a long way in ramping up the vaccination programme in the country.
The first batch of the donation arrived on Saturday night at the OR Tambo International Airport.
The donation is part of the first 25 million doses the US will donate to Africa and comes after a bilateral meeting between US President Joe Biden and President Cyril Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in June.
The arrival of the 1st Pfizer vaccines consigned is part of the donation from USA government. The next batch will arrive on Tuesday to conclude the 5.6 m doses donation #VaccineRollOutSA pic.twitter.com/sswqGekYZm
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) July 31, 2021
This is the largest donation of COVID-19 vaccines to a single country by the US, with Nigeria following with 4 million.
Kubayi says, “This contribution comes in very handy and comes timely for us as we roll out. It contributes towards our supplies in terms of security supply to meet the demands that we have so we really appreciate this donation and we want to say thank you very much for this. And as we know that as part of the contribution towards the African continent, we’ve been interacting with the African presidents convey whose working very hard to ensure the vaccine for the continent.”
This contribution comes timely for us as we prepare to move to younger age cohort of 18 in September. Today’s donation contributes to security of supply to meet the demands we have to reach our set milestones and vaccinate a majority of the population soon #VaccineRollOutSA pic.twitter.com/lC75JLGYEM
— Department of Health (@HealthZA) July 31, 2021
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