Elderly South Africans receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the Munsieville Centre for the Aged, on Monday, as part of phase two of the vaccine campaign. Picture: Citizen.co.za/Michel Bega
The statistic that only one in two people over the age of 60 have actually registered for the Covid-19 vaccine in South Africa is hugely concerning.
We realise a section of the elderly have had problems accessing technology to register, are wary of the vaccines and some are just too frail to leave their homes due to pre-existing medical conditions.
But it’s crucial that this age group firstly registers to get their jabs and, secondly, actually get inoculated if we are to reach herd immunity by early 2022.
The slow start to our vaccine roll-out – following a sluggish procurement process and problems with the supply of jabs – reveals we are far off our vaccine targets, leading to a knock-on effect on the administering of vaccines to other age groups.
Government opened up registration for the over-60s to apply for vaccines in mid-April.
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According to Business Insider, the fact that only 51.6% of our population’s age group of 5.4 million over the age of 60 have registered is a massive cause for concern.
Worse yet, only 44.53% of the over-60 group of 1.3 million in Gauteng – gripped by the third wave of the pandemic – have registered.
New projections see the completion of the over-60s age group now only at the end of September.
There’s no time for slip-ups or further delays after it was announced yesterday the over-50s age group will start registration from 1 July, with the hope of starting inoculations on 15 July.
Acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane is naturally concerned, saying: “We are very worried that the demand from the 60-plus age group is reducing exponentially. As a group that is most at risk, we cannot give up on netting the vast majority of this group”.
“We are now finalising plans to take vaccines to the people to ensure that we find all our senior citizens and vaccinate them for their own protection and to reduce the burden on the healthcare system.”
We need to encourage people over the age of 60 to register if they haven’t, and aid them in getting their jabs once they have. If we don’t, we face the possibility of losing many more loved ones.
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