Vaccine passports essential to open social gatherings, says Phaahla

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla on Friday briefed the country on South Africa’s ongoing Covid-19 vaccine rollout. He was joined by Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela and health MEC Montseng Tsiu.

Covid-19 briefing, 17 September

The three-part briefing included a walkabout at the Universitas Academic Hospital vaccination site in Bloemfontein, as well as a national vaccination update and a visit to other vaccination sites in the region.

Youth vaccinations

The health minister encouraged South African youth – those aged between 18 and 35 – to get vaccinated. He said while Pfizer had been approved for teens, the focus should remain on adults for now.

He said it would be “irresponsible to start running around” while most adults, especially those in high-risk groups, have not received their jabs yet.

Phaahla said the focus should remain on vaccinating the 50+ age group (currently at 30%) first. Once the goal of 50% has been reached, additional milestones can be explored.

For the next two months, the goal will be to vaccinate adults before the predicted fourth wave arrives in December 2021.

Fourth wave in South Africa

Back in June, Professor Salim Abdool Karim told Bhekisisa that SA could almost certainly experience the fourth wave, and based on the data, it is expected to happen in December.

He said a country must have “a very high level of vaccination to stop the fourth wave”, meaning between 70%-80% of the population should be vaccinated.

“It’s not necessarily critically important that we get to the government’s goal of vaccinating 40 million people by then, it’s more important that we finish phase two [people of 40 years and older] before December.”

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Vaccine passport rollout

He said the National Coronavirus Command Council would discuss vaccine certificates in two weeks, with the assistance of Home Affairs and recreation departments.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced earlier this week that the health department was “looking at a variety of mechanisms to either do it electronically through cellphones or other forms of demonstration”.

The matter was not well-received by some members of the public on social media.

Phaahla said the aim of vaccine passports is “not to punish people”. Instead, it should be seen as an additional measure to protect the nation.

He said Covid-19 certificates would be available on one’s smartphone, downloadable from a link. Residents will also be able to print their certificates.

Larger social gatherings

He said vaccination certificates would allow South Africans to partake in more social events – such as larger gatherings. For example, 400 vaccinated people could be allowed to attend sport events.

The certificate will be used to access recreation, sports , arts and cultural activities in bigger numbers.

While this would be beneficial to vaccinated individuals, Phaahla said the proposed measures would not deprive unvaccinated people from accessing essential services such as healthcare.

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