Pretoria - The government is expecting the number of people receiving the vaccine to surpass 250 000 a day from this week.
The current average of 199 000 will be boosted even further as registrations for 35- to 49-year-olds are scheduled to open on July 15. The actual roll-out will begin on August 1.
At least 4 million people have already received the jab, as the government rolls out the vaccine to more age groups and as essential services and frontline workers like the police began the vaccination of their members across the country last week.
Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said the number of people receiving the vaccine daily was increasing, while there was another increase of requests from people asking for certain sectors to be prioritised.
She said the increase in the number of people receiving the vaccine daily was a milestone, although there were some people who thought it was not sufficient in comparison to the rest of the population.
She said: “As we are opening the new age groups, we are receiving requests from people who are asking us to prioritise certain sectors. We will continue to approach the vaccine roll-out according to age sectors, but we are reviewing this. We believe the age process continues to be the best. It will continue to allow us to reach more South Africans.” Her department had engaged the Treasury last week for assistance with funding for human capital to begin vaccinations on weekends; the country would begin to see weekend vaccinations from August 1.
Pretoria News