Publications
- The US will donate 2.2 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to South Africa.
- Health Minister Joe Phaahla says the doses will arrive in the country tomorrow.
- The Overberg District in the Western Cape has achieved a 96.7% vaccine registration of the population over 60-years-old.
The United States will donate over two million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to South Africa, the Department of Health confirmed on Friday.
Health Minister Joe Phaahla, speaking during his department's weekly live update, said that South Africa will be receiving an additional 2.2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine this Saturday.
"[This will] be in addition to the 5.6 million [doses] which we already received in July," Phaahla said.
The US has donated 2.2 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to South Africa. According to the health department, SA will receive these vaccines on 28 August 2021. @TeamNews24 @News24
— uCebelihle wakwaMthethwa ???? (@CebohNyambose) August 27, 2021
To date, the total number of vaccines administered has reached 11 648 851, while the total number of people who are fully vaccinated with either one dose of Johnson & Johnson or two doses of the Pfizer vaccine has surpassed 5 450 000.
Phaahla added that the department has seen an increase in the percentage of males who have been vaccinated versus the total population of males, possibly due to the efforts of the 18-to-34-year-old cohort.
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"As of [Thursday], the female vaccinated percentage was 58.5 and the male[s] were at 41.5. So there is an improvement on the male uptake which is really imperative," added Phaahla.
Overberg vaccine success
The Overberg District in the Western Cape has achieved a 96.7% registration of the population over 60 years of age.
The district says the high rate of registrations was driven in part by a campaign which saw young people "adopt" an older person to assist them with registering and getting vaccinated.
According to Overberg district health director, Wilma Kamfer, 84.5% of people aged 60 and above have already received their jabs.
"The success is attributed to the partnership between the Department of Health and local NPOs," Kamfer added.
She added that their local municipality is key in daily messaging to the communities to ensure that they are informed about the vaccines.
Kamfer said that when the Overberg district started with their vaccine campaigns, they had dedicated management teams in the sub-districts.
"Our older people wanted to travel, so we used that as an area to say, let's get vaccinated," added Kamfer.
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