South Africa’s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has come to the defense of President Cyril Ramaphosa on his proposed plans for the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine.
He said that Ramaphosa paid enough attention to issues relating to both the pandemic and vaccines, adding that more granular details would be announced in the coming week.
Opposition parties have criticized the President, saying that his State of the Nation Address (Sona) failed to provide details of the government’s plans to vaccinate the majority of the population.
Ramaphosa said that all province’s roll-out plans were in place.
The president also said the country would now be using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, of which 80,0000 doses would arrive in the country next week.
The government has been lambasted for moving too slow on the procurement of vaccines and more recently for acquiring the AstraZeneca vaccines, which have a reduced efficacy to a variant of the virus discovered in South Africa.
Mkhize said he believed President Ramaphosa managed to instill confidence in the government’s plans.
“The emphasis on vaccination, I think, is worth it. The president needs to be able to assure South Africans that vaccinations is going to start, and he has done that. [He] also needs to assure us that vaccination is the way to go for all South Africans, which I also think is very important.
-EWN
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