Roll out of digital vaccination certificates imminent
The statement was made during the minister of health’s virtual meeting on the SA response to the Covid-19 pandemic this morning.
Dr Joe Phaahla said the department is aware of the debate around the vaccination passport which is required by some counties for international travel.
South Africa still requires only a less than 72 hours PCR COVID-19 test for traveling.
“We have, however, commenced with the development of a digital vaccination certificate to confirm that a person has been vaccinated,” he said.
The certificate is protected from fraud and can be uploaded on your smartphone and is printable.
This initiative is in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) initiated vaccination certificate attempting to standardise vaccination proof in the world.
Vaccination campaign
Giving feedback on the vaccination campaign, the minister said there has been a steady momentum but it needs to gather more speed. Workplace vaccinations are also playing a major role in the campaign.
“Our total vaccinations yesterday was 220,550 doses administered which is still far short of the 300,000 target especially if we consider that the number includes second doses of Pfizer,” he said.
The total dose administered reached 14,367,151 yesterday, with 10,510,378 individuals vaccinated with at least one dose constituting 26,41% of the adult population and 7,021,256 people were fully vaccinated which is 17,64% of all adults.
“We still need to reach 18m more adults to achieve 70% coverage of all adults with at least one dose by December. When we get more J&J vaccines we will be able to increase full vaccinations by a single dose,” the minister said.
Drop in cases
The minister reported that the country is “steadily getting out of the grip of the third wave driven by the Delta variant”.
Nationally there has been a 24% drop in new cases compared to seven days before. Hospitalisation over the seven days has also gone down by 10%.
In the last 24 hours the 6,270 total new cases are consistent with a downward trend of new infections. The positivity rate has come down from the highest level of 35% in mid-July to 12% yesterday.
Source: sacoronavirus.co.za
