Health Minister Joe Phaahla says govt still struggling to get jabs into SA arms

• Health Minister Joe Phaahla says the government is still struggling to get South Africans vaccinated against Covid-19.
• Phaahla says the key to the government's strategy is to get more young people vaccinated.
• About 25 million vaccine doses are available in the country.

With 25 million vaccine doses available, Health Minister Joe Phaahla says the government is still struggling to get South Africans vaccinated against Covid-19, especially after a "less severe" fourth wave.

According to Phaahla, getting more young people vaccinated is one of the government's main goals.

He responded to ANC MP Xiaomei Havard's written parliamentary question on the government's efforts to boost the vaccination roll-out plan should the National State of Disaster be suspended.

"The vaccination programme is able to administer 250 000 vaccinations a day and all measures are in place to sustain this capability. There are at least 25 million doses of vaccine in the country. The challenge is convincing people to vaccinate, which is more difficult now because many believe that the pandemic is over purely because the impact of the fourth (Omicron) wave was less severe," Phaahla said.

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Phaahla said the national Department of Health, private sector and NGOs had commenced with new and intensified measures to get jabs into arms.

A project management unit in the department was established to sustain vaccinations as other health services returned to full implementation.

"The youth-focused programme, #KeReady, was launched and is being driven by a team led by young health professionals. The Department of Higher Education and Higher Health has embarked on vaccination campaigns in all tertiary education institutions," he said.

He added:

Phaahla also said several companies had implemented mandatory vaccination in workplaces while others supported their workers' vaccination.

"The intervals between doses (including booster doses) have been reduced to the lower limit of the evidence for good immune responses. Heterologous (mixed) vaccination regimens have been introduced to allow either of the vaccines to be used, which eases the options for vaccination," Phaahla said.

Furthermore, he said provincial health departments had implemented strategies to reach communities where vaccination coverage was poor.

Phaahla said, as of 2 March, 1 635 827 vaccine doses had been administered to 1 364 029 children aged 12 and older.

"The departments of health and basic education are working together to protect learners through the provision of vaccination against Covid-19. The vaccination programme and the Integrated School Health Programme have been tasked with ensuring that all appropriate schools (predominantly secondary schools) are linked to a vaccination service," he said.

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This emerged in response to a separate parliamentary question from ANC MP Tshilidzi Munyai.

In November last year, the ACDP took the national Department of Health to court over Covid-19 vaccinations for children.

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has approved Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine to be used for vaccinating children aged 12 to 17. According to the latest government notice, children are eligible to receive two doses of the Pfizer vaccine 21 days apart.

According to the ACDP, the matter is expected to be heard in April.

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