Health Minister Joe Phaahla. Picture: Itumeleng English/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town - Health Minister Joe Phaahla has urged the country to scale up the Covid-19 vaccination programme, saying if 70% of the population was vaccinated they would not need the preventive regulations to combat the disease.
Phaahla said on Tuesday that to date 44.5% of the adult population has been vaccinated.
The country had initially targeted to reach 70% of the population by the end of last December, but this was moved to early this year.
However, just over half of the targeted population has managed to get the jabs. He urged the public to comment on the Covid-19 health regulations, saying that after the next two weeks the health act will take over and they will continue to monitor the situation.
Phaahla said with the introduction of regulations, they also want to scale up the vaccination of people.
He said some countries abroad have even reached 90% of the population.
The regulations would ensure there was still some level of protection in the country.
He said the regulations will come into effect after transitional measures have lapsed.
However, he said with the new measures being introduced, they will not be necessary if they can reach the vaccination target of 70% of the population.
“If we can reach 70% of the adult population vaccinated, even these kind of preventative measures which we are pronouncing now will be unnecessary because once we reach 70% coverage then there will be good enough protection that even these measures will not be required,” said Phaahla.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za