Cabinet has approved the decision to open up the vaccine rollout Sisonke Protocol to those aged 18 to 34 from tomorrow – 20th August.

Originally this bracket of the population was set to receive its jabs from 1st September onwards, but slow turn out for other age groups has opened up eligibility for those 18 years and older.

There was talk of the vaccination process opening up earlier this week, but the Department of Health was still in discussions with relevant stakeholders at the time.

Along with the decision to open up vaccinations for COVID-19 to another segment of the country, Cabinet has also confirmed that the country will remain at adjusted alert level 3 lockdown.

While this is good news for those that fall in the newly opened age group, government has cited the current poor turnout as a cause for concern, especially with a potential fourth wave looming come December this year.

“The health department has set the target of fully vaccinating 70% of the adult population by December, meaning the country will have to vaccinate 29 million adults to reach the target,” reports News24, which followed the Cabinet briefing live.

“By the end of last week, only about 10% were fully vaccinated,” it adds.

As we await more information on what the requirements will be as far as registration goes, the EVDS portal is still only registering those older than 35 at the time of writing.

Hopefully more information will follow in the coming hours. When it is shared by Cabinet, we will update this story accordingly.

[Source – News24]
[Image – CC BY-ND 2.0 GovernmentZA on Flickr]