Since South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout began, more than 21 million jabs of vaccine have been administered in the country.

The Department of Health says that just under 30% of the adult population has been vaccinated which amounts to around 11.8 million people. Yesterday, 185 204 jabs were administered around the country with 11 604 being administered to teenagers.

Research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in South Africa is slowly growing. This comes a time when the countries department of health is hoping to vaccinate more than 70% of the countries adult population before the end of the year.

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) acting directory Professor Talita Greyling says that a positive attitude towards getting vaccinated is seeing a downward trend in South Africa.

She explains that vaccine hesitancy is not being driven by vaccine efficacy concerns, but rather by distrust of the government, corruption and procurement processes. She adds that some people have said they experience difficulty accessing the vaccine.

Greyling said, “many people want to get vaccinated but they've got problems or except for the anger about the roll out process, it's because they can't access it so something like a mobile vaccination unit or station that can actually go to the people take the vaccine to the people and the people don't need to go to the vaccine can make a difference”.