South Africa Is ‘Losing Momentum’ in Its Vaccination Drive

There has been a marked drop in the number of vaccines given daily, says deputy-director in the Health Department, Dr Nicholas Crisp.

The country is losing momentum in its vaccination drive, Crisp said on Friday during the national weekly update on Covid-19.

A graph showing the number of daily vaccinations reveals a consistent downward trend since the start of August.

Regarding vaccine stocks, Crisp said the country was in a good and stable position, with more Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer doses arriving and another 28 million on the way.

However, he was worried about a decrease in pre-vaccination and walk-in registrations.

“[On Thursday] we only registered 53,000 and that is a very poor show,” he said. When registrations opened for over-35s more than a million did so in 24 hours.

Data showed that the 35-to-49 age group started strong but had not sustained an interest.

Crisp said the country has vaccinated 9.2 million people so far but there was a lot of room for improvement.

A temporary shortage of stock at the end of July appeared to have caused a loss of impetus and momentum in the vaccine drive and while the number of vaccines was increasing the drop-off…

By Daily Maverick.