Ramaphosa pleased with the pace of vaccination rollout programme

President Cyril Ramaphosa says he is satisfied with the pace of vaccination throughout the country. He was speaking after visiting the Tembisa vaccination site at the Rabasotho Community Hall in Ekurhuleni.

Ramaphosa also went to visit the private-public vaccination site in Midrand north of Johannesburg. His visit to these sites is aimed at motivating South Africans to embrace vaccination as the most viable weapon against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi is also upbeat about the progress being made in encouraging people to get vaccinated. Kubayi was speaking on a vaccination site visit alongside Ramaphosa.

“It is a milestone but we still have to push. It’s not yet there, you know my target set by the President is about 300 per day. So if I have not yet reached, it’s not yet what he wants but we are excited that he’s visiting the sites, it’s part of his monitoring the work that we are doing on vaccinations and hope South Africans will heed the call,” says Kubayi.

SA Vaccines | President Ramaphosa satisfied with pace of vaccination throughout SA

Meanwhile, the United States (US) government has donated 5.7 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccines to South Africa. It is the largest bilateral vaccine donation to date.

US President Joe Biden earlier pledged to donate 500 million vaccine doses globally including by sharing doses with African countries through the COVAX facility and in coordination with the Africa CDC and the African Union.

The South African government has targeted to vaccinate 41 million people by the end of the year for the country to gain herd immunity.

This was delayed because of a global shortage, with vaccines coming in progressively. Vaccine sites have however increased as more jabs became available.

COVID-19 Pandemic | President Ramaphosa visits vaccination sites in Gauteng: Tyrone Seale