South Africa aims to have given at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to 35 million of its 60 million population by Christmas, a senior health official said on Wednesday.
“We will be able to have vaccinated – at least one dose – to 35 million people before Christmas. That is the target that we have been set and that we are chasing,” Nicholas Crisp told a parliamentary committee.
The Southern nation is the worst affected by COVID-19 in Africa in terms of recorded infections and deaths and is currently experiencing a “third wave” of infections.
South Africa has to date administered around 5.8 million doses of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson and two-dose Pfizer vaccines.
The pace of daily vaccinations has picked up in recent days, with the health ministry data showing on Wednesday that more than 250,000 vaccinations had been administered in the past 24 hours.
