South Africa opens coronavirus vaccines to all adults
Johannesburg, Aug 19 (EFE).- South Africa, the continent’s Covid-19 epicenter, will open vaccinations to all adults starting Friday.
“As part of increasing the vaccination roll-out program, Cabinet approved the vaccination of persons aged between 18 and 35 years from 20 August 2021,” the South African government said in a statement Thursday.
The decision was approved by the cabinet on Wednesday, in a bid to speed up the lagging vaccination rollout.
South Africa inoculates some 200,000 people per day, short of a 300,000-a-day goal set by President Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as the health authorities.
Vaccine skeptics and concerns about side effects are seen as the main reasons behind the slowdown.
Some 10 million out of the African nation’s population of 58 million have taken the first dose of the vaccine while 4.4 million have been fully vaccinated.
More than 2.5 million infections and 78,000 deaths linked to coronavirus have been registered in South Africa since the start of the pandemic.EFE
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