‘Events could open soon if more people get jabbed,’ says health minister

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said on Friday, the sooner more people were vaccinated the quicker restrictions could be eased – and more “soft incentives” opened to the public.

Addressing the media at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital vaccination site in Soweto, Phaahla said government was considering introducing soft incentives such as attending music festivals, going to sporting events, or holding other gatherings to encourage people to get vaccinated.

“Our priority as government is to mobilise and convince people to take the vaccine voluntarily,” he said.

“The thrust of our strategy is to speak to people and allay their fears so they can come voluntarily to receive the vaccination.”

The minister added that his department was looking to make a recommendation on easing of the alert level 3 lockdown, following a departmental analysis with ministerial advisory committee.

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“We will continue to assess this and will give a report to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the team of leadership in the next week,” Phaahla said.

“If it becomes clear that there is stability and the infection rates are definitely stabilising, we will give the necessary advice.”

However, he said while the government was not ignorant to the pressure for eased restrictions, he was encouraged by the decline in the third wave of Covid in most provinces.

Phaahla said the health department had not considered making vaccines mandatory but was prioritising encouragement with the incentives, so that more people could consider the jab.

He added that government’s priority was rolling out vaccines, and it had no intention of introducing legislation around mandatory vaccinations.

“With confirmation that you are vaccinated, we could start opening up more facilities and say, ‘if you are vaccinated, so many people can go to a soccer stadium to watch a match; if you are vaccinated, so many people can go to Newtown to watch some music,’” he added.

“What we are looking at is soft kinds of incentives. People are hungry for entertainment, for music festivals, to go to Orlando Stadium to watch a soccer match.”

SA has now administered more than 13 million vaccines. According to the department of health’s latest data, the country distributed 250 843 more vaccines, pushing the total to 13 112 268.

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The number of adults fully vaccinated now stands at 6 301 758, with 146 623 people having either received the Johnson & Johnson shot or the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Meanwhile, Phaahla said scientists had told the government that at this stage the C.1.2 Covid variant detected locally was not a threat.

He also confirmed they were targeting at least 90% of the adult population to be vaccinated by December.

“We are taking this step by step, at the end we wish to reach 70%, but practically also that’s going to be down the line, especially when we reach the stage where we can even go below 18 years,” he added.

Newly appointed acting director-general of the National Health Insurance, Dr Nicholas Crisp, said no deaths have been linked to the vaccine yet and that anyone who had adverse reaction to the jab should report it.

“There is a strict reporting system and it is available, there’s a website Adverse Events Following Immunisation that we’ve been running in the country for years,” he said.