COVID UPDATE BY JESSIE TAYLOR
Driving vaccinations:
Youth may hold the key to reaching immunity targets T he opening of the national vaccination drive to all those older than 18 promises to give the country’s fight against Covid-19 a boost. The vaccination programme, which started in May, has been vaccinating according to age groups. This strategy is based on prioritising those most vulnerable to contracting severe cases of the virus, need hospitalisation or die. However, the programme will now be open to anyone older than 18, allow youth to access vaccines across the country. Tracking targets This move could potentially change the trajectory of the pandemic in the country, with youth a key sector for fighting the Covid-19. Not only are they the most mobile age group – and therefore at risk of spreading the disease – they also have the opportunity to influence older relatives to get vaccinated. The further opening of the vaccination programme to this age group will make additional 17 million people eligible for vaccination. Those older than 18 were able to register and receive and vaccination from
42 | Public Sector Leaders | September 2021
20 August, after the date was moved forward from 1 September. With the government needing to fully vaccinate around 30 million adults to reach the target of inoculating 70% of the adult population to protect the country against future waves of Covid-19, including the new age cohort will go a long way in bolstering vaccination numbers. At the time of opening the vaccination programme to all adults, the government had already fully vaccinated close to five million people, with around eight million people partially vaccinated.
The opening up of the vaccination programme comes after several weeks of decreased vaccine demand. This despite vaccine hesitancy decreasing, according to a recent study by the Centre for Social Change survey at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The study found vaccine acceptance rates had increased overall to around 72%. However, the rate had dropped among the youth. In the 18 to 24 age group, only 55% showed vaccine acceptance between June and July this year, compared to 62% in
