BusinessLive reports that SA is scaling back its Covid-19 vaccination drive and may have to destroy doses because of a lack of demand from citizens, even as the country heads into a fifth wave of infections.

Take up has slowed to the point where keeping some sites running was unaffordable, said Nicholas Crisp, deputy director-general at the Department of Health and the person in charge of the programme. “No-one is arriving” to get shots and the numbers “are just terrible,” Crisp said in an interview on Monday. Covid-19 vaccinations would need to be incorporated into SA’s standard medical programmes, which would mean these specific shots would be less accessible, he said. Only about half of SA’s 40-million adults are fully protected, about a year after doses were first made available to the public. While the government was heavily criticised before that for being slow to secure vaccines, hesitancy is now its biggest problem. The 18-39 age group was the most reluctant, Crisp said. The slow pace means the country may be forced to destroy many vaccines because they will expire. Crisp said the government had unsuccessfully tried to donate the excess supply.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Antony Sguazzin and Janice Kew at BusinessLive

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