Vaccine Rollout: SA hits milestone with 1 in 3 adults now fully vaxxed

Here’s some good news on the COVID-19 and vaccine rollout front. As of this weekend, the country has officially fully vaccinated one-third of all South African adults.
While it’s still well short of the original target of having 70% of adults fully vaxxed by December, it’s still an important milestone to celebrate. So how did we get to this point and just how much further do we still have to go? Let’s take a closer look.

Where are we with South Africa’s vaccine rollout?

We were pushed over the edge thanks to government holding one of its Vooma Vaccination drives this weekend. Community workers and volunteers are out in numerous areas across the country, particularly encouraging those 50 and older to get the jab.

On Saturday alone, just over 77 000 vaccines were administered. That’s up from just 33 000 from the Saturday before.

Also Read – ‘Facebook rapist’ arrested by SAPS after lengthy investigation

The target for this Vooma Weekend had been to administer 500 000 jabs. With 148 000 administered on Friday and a lower number expected on Sunday, the target almost certainly won’t be reached.

Since the country started administering vaccines, just under 24 million vaccines have gone into arms. With many of them the Pfizer two-dose vaccine, that brings us to 33.3% of the country’s adults being fully vaxxed since our vaccine rollout began.

Which provinces are leading the rollout?

The joint worst-performing provinces in terms of percentage of adults vaccinated, are Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. They’ve fully vaccinated just 28.8% of their adults.

The best performing province? Limpopo. Limpopo is the only province that has managed to get above the 40% mark so far. They’ve double jabbed 42.4% of all their adults.

#VacccineRollOutSA has reached a milestone: 1 in 3 adults in SA is fully vaccinated. Now to get to 50%. But how is each province doing? Here you go. https://t.co/8qwjkHrsWa pic.twitter.com/UXGvrVKwod

— Bhekisisa (@Bhekisisa_MG) November 14, 2021

We’ve expected to face our 4th wave as a country in either December or January. How long we can hold it off AND how severe it is, will all be greatly affected by how many more vaccines the country can administer.

The focus for government now? Making sure as many adults over 50 who have been hesitant, go and get their shots before the 4th wave begins.