President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to address the nation once more, this time to focus more on the Government’s efforts to upscale their vaccination campaign.
On Tuesday, President Ramaphosa is said to have met with the National Coronavirus Command Council and the Ministerial Advisory Comittee to map a way forward for country’s vaccination campaign.
Earlier in the year, the National Department of Health, then under the titilege of now disgraced former Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, set a target to vaccinate at least 67% by the end of the year.
So far, less than seven million people have been vaccinated, which accounts for less that 12% of the population.
It is highly unlikely, at this current rate, that National Department of Health will meet the target. As such, South Africa is very likely to go into 2022 with the coronavirus still prevalent in the population.
Another vaccine related issue the President is expted to address has to do the widespread hesitancy to vaccinate.
More and more people are becoming more and more skeptical to vaccinate following report that a substantial number of the elderly who vaccinated died or became gravely ill after vaccination.
This creates an atmosphere of distrust in the general public. Distrust of the government, and also of the vaccines themselves.
The Government has done very little on winning the public’s trust, and it’s silence on companies that are mandating their employees to get vaccinated has created more disdain for the vaccine.
In his previous speeches, President Ramaphosa had assured South Africans that mo one would be mandated to get the vaccine, but as it seems, it was worlds, the usual rumbling of a politician that means nothing.
It remains to be seen how the Government plans to upscale their vaccine campaign, and whether the country would go onto level 1 lockdown, since the order of busines on the streets seems to be operating at level 1 Lockdown.
The President’s deal is yet to communicate the date and the time for Ramaphosa’s next address.