DA calls on Deputy President to provide an honest report of SA’s vaccine rollout
15 March 2021
Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbite by SiviweGwarube MP.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the inter-ministerial committee (IMC) headed by Deputy President, David Mabuza, to provide an urgent and honest report back on South Africa’s vaccine rollout programme which is yet to begin in the middle of March.
While the government has tried to create the impression that South Africa has started its vaccine programme, the truth is that the vaccines being administered thus far are merely part of a Johnson & Johnson trial – the Sisonke Protocol. This part of the vaccine rollout phase is perhaps the simplest as it targets healthcare workers in healthcare facilities. What is an impending crisis is how we in are tending on reaching the millions of remaining healthcare workers and the most vulnerable who require the vaccine when we can hardly put together 10 000 vaccinations per day.
South Africa is currently only managing to vaccinate an average of just over 6 000 people per day. Even if we manage to ramp up the vaccination to 10 000 people per day – which is wholly inadequate – it would still take us 4 000 days, essentially 10-11 years to meet government’s target of vaccinating 40 million people to reach population immunity. This will mean that instead vaccinating 65% of the population by the end of the year, the target will only be met by 2031.