South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla warned that people should remain vigilant against the coronavirus as the number of infections began increasing in the past seven days, reported CGTN Africa.
During a virtual media briefing on Friday, Phaala said there has been an 18.2 percent increase in new infections over the past seven days as compared to the previous seven days. The resurgence has been driven by the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, and the Northern Cape.
He noted that the rising cases over the past week were the reason the National Coronavirus Command Council and the Cabinet decided to keep South Africa at lockdown level three.
Phaahla said the number of vaccination doses that have been administered so far crossed 10-million on Thursday, and more than half of the key over-60 age group has received at least one dose.
“The total population fully vaccinated now stands at 4.62-million people. This is 12% of the adult population,” said Phaahla. “The total people with at least one jab of Pfizer are 8.8-million, 20% of the adult population.”
Notably, the South African government has also opened up COVID-19 vaccinations for people aged 18 to 34 from Friday.
The National Department of Health is going to roll out a pilot project to transport people to vaccination centers, in a bid to drive up inoculation rates.
Dr. Phaala said the government is now focusing more on taking the vaccine to the people, rather than getting people to come to the vaccine. He added that the project will first be tested in Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal.
The health minister said that the government’s aim is to provide transport from high-density population areas to mass vaccination sites in urban areas. He urged young people, whom he described as the future of South Africa, to come in big numbers to get vaccinated.
