By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Acting health minister Mammoloko Kubayi-Ngubane has announced that government will open up Covid-19 vaccine registrations to more age groups nationally from next week.
In a media briefing on Friday morning (25 June), Kubayi-Ngubane noted the important dates for all citizens between the ages of 50-59 :
- Registration will open on the electronic vaccination data system (EVDS) from 1 July.
- Vaccinations for this age group are scheduled to begin on 15 July.
- The EVDS can be accessed here.
The minister said that as of Thursday, 2.5 million people have been vaccinated in South Africa with no deaths reported.
She added that studies published this week show that there is clear evidence that vaccines provide high levels of protection to those who have been inoculated.
South Africa has previously only allowed healthcare workers and people over the age of 60 to register for vaccinations. The government began its plan to vaccinate nearly half a million education staff this week.
Kubayi-Ngubane said that the government was concerned about the number of people over 60 who have registered for a vaccine, which has continued to decrease.
The minister said that this was particularly problematic as this age group is not at risk and yet the majority of people have not been vaccinated.
She said that this was likely a result of high vaccine hesitancy, difficulties in accessing technology to register, and not being able to access vaccination centres.
Kubayi-Ngubane said that the government was now finalising plans to bring vaccines directly to people.
The acting minister added that she will meet with the government’s Covid-19 Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on Saturday (26 June) to discuss further lockdown restrictions for South Africa.
She said that the MAC has already submitted its recommendations, with the meeting set to focus on the concerns that it has raised and the interventions that need to be made at a national and provincial level.
In the meantime, the acting Minister said the National Department of Health has activated its surge response, which is executed together with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Surge Team deployed in the country.
The department has also employed 10 intervention areas that provinces must adopt to aid in the resurgence preparations and response.
These include governance and leadership, medical supplies, port and environmental health, epidemiology, facility readiness, case management, risk communication and community engagement, occupational health and safety, infection prevention and control, and human resources.
Also, the department will continue to monitor daily infections, hospital admissions, mortality rate, oxygen availability, personal protective equipment (PPE) availability and medicine supply.
“Where there are challenges, we alert the province to the impending risk and encourage them to address the matter,” she said.
“Yesterday, we had a meeting with Gauteng to confront the pressure they are facing with this wave and comprehensively deal with the drivers of this current wave, strategic case management and effective containment measures.”
She said she will be meeting with Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19 on Saturday about issues that need critical and urgent intervention.
Deputy Director-General for Health, Dr Anban Pillay and a representative from Gauteng will join the acting Minister and they will present a detailed report on how the National and Provincial Departments of Health are implementing the surge response strategies.
“It is important to continue to emphasise not only the wearing of the mask all the time in public but wearing the mask correctly,” she stressed.