South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla on Friday said the government has decided to set up vaccination sites near at least 1,000 voting stations to inoculate people against COVID-19 during local government elections on Monday, reported CGTN Africa.
In a virtual briefing on the country’s COVID-19 vaccination roll-out, the minister said vaccination sites will be set up outside the area demarcated strictly for voting so that they don’t interfere with the voting.
“We hope that this arrangement will offer convenience in that people will have traveled from their homes and they can achieve both their vote and vaccination in one trip,” Phaahla said. “We welcome the fact that political parties have no problem with this arrangement.”
The South African minister said the government will partner with the private sector to offer free rides to health workers and to award best performing health worker teams with food vouchers.
Phaahla also announced a pilot scheme of 26 million rands to reward 260,000 people over the age of 60 who receive their first jab in November. Each of them will be given a supermarket voucher worth 100 rands.
The minister informed that total admissions of COVID-19 patients in the hospital as of Thursday were 3,939, down from 6,173 on the same day last month. He added that the number of new coronavirus cases has fallen by 22 percent over the last seven days, with hospitalization has declined by 14.5 percent in the last seven days and the death rate by 18 percent.
Over 12 million people are now fully vaccinated, around 30 percent of adults in South Africa, which is the worst-hit African country by the coronavirus pandemic. The country has recorded more than 2.92 million cases including 89,100 fatalities so far.
The South African government is targeting to vaccinate about 40 percent of the country’s adult population by end of November.
