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BL Premium reports that the Department of Health (DOH) has opened coronavirus vaccination at approved workplace sites to all employees over the age of 18, thus scrapping restrictions that have until now limited the jabs to the age groups eligible in the national rollout.
The development helps simplify the government’s increasingly complex inoculation programme. Shots are currently being offered to people aged 35 years and older. From 1 September 1 eligibility will expand to anyone aged 18 years and above. The Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers Union welcomed the decision to open workplace vaccination sites to all adults, saying it would help ensure SA reached population immunity as quickly as possible. The policy shift comes as the public and private sectors ramp up capacity in anticipation of increased vaccine supplies in August and September. Supplies were likely to remain constrained for the next week to 10 days but were expected to improve significantly as sizeable deliveries from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson came into the system, said Business for SA’s Martin Kingston. Vaccination sites received fewer doses in July than they had capacity to administer. “Although we have immediate short-term constraints we have got enough vaccine for the entire eligible population. We anticipate that by October more than 80% of the adult population could have received their first dose,” Kingston indicated. Increased supplies in the month ahead could see the vaccination programme ramp up to administering 420,000 doses a day by late August.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Tamar Kahn at BusinessLive
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