KZN has one of the highest vaccination rates, stats show

DURBAN – The KwaZulu-Natal province has one of the most successful Covid-19 vaccination rates nationally, according to regional government vaccine statistics.

The province is in the midst of phase two of its roll-out plan, making the vaccine available to those between the ages of 60 and over. Health-care workers who missed their vaccination during phase one were also prioritised in the second phase.

A total of 163,415 people aged over 60 have been vaccinated in the province, KZN Department of Health spokesperson Ntokozo Maphisa told African News Agency (ANA) on Monday.

A total of 223,884 (1.94%) citizens have already been vaccinated, according to the latest Electronic Vaccine Data System (EVDS) report.

Of the 15.5 million citizens in the Gauteng province, 231,737 (1.49%) individuals have been vaccinated, but since it has a larger population than KZN (11.5 million), the rate of vaccination is lower.

The Western Cape has a population of around 6.7 million, of which 130,332 (1.94%) have received a vaccine, according to the Western Cape’s spokesperson for health, Nomawethu Sbukwana.

The Eastern Cape has vaccinated around 1.5% (103,622) of its population.

“We’ve done a number of things to ensure that the registration and vaccination process goes off smoothly. This includes the training of more than 7,000 vaccinators as well as drawing on our health personnel’s experiences with vaccinations, which they have been doing for a very long time.

“It has even been said that if all things were equal and vaccines were available, it would not take us a long time at all to vaccinate all qualifying people of KwaZulu-Natal,” Maphisa said in a statement.

Maphisa said that the people of KZN have come out in their numbers to register for a vaccine and support the province in its recovery post-Covid-19.

“We are also encouraging people to continue registering, and making a call to the younger and more technologically savvy people to help the elderly with registration, so that we can vaccinate as many of them as possible.”

All three of the major South African provinces have confirmed that they have seen an increase in vaccine registration rates.

Following the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the tightening of lockdown restrictions on Sunday, the province has a total positive Covid-19 case count of 339,811, with numbers on the rise.

KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala welcomed the president’s announcement, saying the provincial government was taking proactive measures to save lives.

“Behaviour is crucial in curbing the spread of the virus. Individuals must take responsibility and not organise or be part of the superspreader events such as funerals, parties and other large gatherings. Individuals must take responsibility,” Zikalala said in a statement on Monday.

“The economy must be assisted to recover, but we must also contain the spread. We will use the level 2 adjusted strategy to accelerate the vaccination roll-out,” Zikalala added.

– African News Agency