South Africa’s Health Ministry on Sunday announced at least 15,388 health care workers have been vaccinated in less than a week since the country rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination drive, reported Anadolu Agency.
“South Africa is rapidly moving to protect its highly valued health care workers through the Sisonke Early Access Programme,” the ministry said in a statement.
The health ministry began vaccinating health workers against coronavirus on Wednesday after receiving its first batch of 80,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The ministry said it has held productive discussions with stakeholders from the private sector and the Sisonke Programme who have allocated one-third of all vaccine doses available for private health care workers.
“This means that one-third of the first 80,000 vaccines will be allocated to the private sector over the next 14 days,” it said.
The health ministry added that at least 3,000 out of the over 10,000 health workers who were vaccinated during the weekend were from the private health care sector. It said both public and private health care workers need to be vaccinated because a threat to their safety will have an impact on the health system’s capacity to deal with COVID-19 infected people during the pandemic.
“We are fully committed to protect the vulnerable health care workers, who have sacrificed so much,” the statement said.
The COVID-19 vaccines are being given in phases, with health workers being the first to get them. The second phase will include other essential workers, teachers, the elderly and those with comorbidities. The third phase will include all other adults.
South Africa has begun to report a decline in coronavirus deaths and cases, according to data released late Sunday by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize. He said the country had lost 113 people to the virus on Sunday, while it lost 81 on Saturday.
