South Africa launches vaccination programme as President Ramaphosa gets COVID-19 jab

On Wednesday South African President Cyril Ramaphosa became one of the first people to receive a COVID-19 vaccination in the country as South Africa begins its vaccination drive with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. "I must say that at first I was a bit terrified of this long needle that was going to be embedded in my arm, but it happened so quickly and so easily”, Ramaphosa said, narrating his experience. He further added that this day marks a ‘milestone’ for South Africa. He added, “I’d like to invite South Africans to take this up so that we can all be safe and we can all be healthy”.

Vaccination drive in South Africa 

Ramaphosa urged South Africa’s 60 million people to have confidence in the vaccines. The first phase of the drive will be focussed on vaccinating the country’s health care workers as an observational study because the J&J shots are not yet authorized for general use. Earlier, the South African health minister announced that the country would not be able to roll out the AstraZeneca vaccine. This was when a small study highlighted that they were not as effective against the variant that is now dominant in Africa. 

This is when the country immediately switched to the J&J vaccines. It received the shipment of 80,000 doses from Belgium. The vaccines were straight away taken to the secure facility and shipped to vaccination centers across the country overnight. 

Read: Thousands In US Military Avoiding COVID-19 Vaccine

The President said that he was relieved when his minister of health sent him text messages and photos confirming the arrival of vaccines. Another 500,000 J&J doses are expected to be flown to South Africa within four weeks for the vaccination campaign. According to the reports by AP, more than 380,000 health care workers have already registered for vaccination. 

Read: Maharashtra's COVID-19 Tally Swells With 4787 New Cases; Positivity Rate At 13.43%

The country has set up 20 vaccination centers in its nine provinces to inoculate the 80,000 health workers over the next two weeks. This will be done by 164 vaccinators. When more doses arrive, the services will be ramped up to ensure the maintenance of a good rate of daily vaccine. The country aims on vaccinating 40 million people, representing about 67 per cent of its population, by the end of the year.

Read: Johnson & Johnson Files For COVID-19 Vaccine Approval From EU

Also Read: UK To Begin World-first Human Trials To Study COVID-19

(Image Credits: AP)