SA urged to follow Israel on Covid-19 vaccination rollout

The Jewish community in South Africa has expressed a strong wish for the country and the rest of the world to emulate Israel, which had launched a massive concerted anti-Covid-19 vaccination drive among its population, while South Africa was still grappling with how to roll out its vaccination programme and even trying to determine where exactly the vaccine will come from.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Tuesday promised but gave no details that vaccine was on the way.

“We are on course to receive the vaccine,” he said.

This was contrary to Israel, which was leading the Middle East with huge vaccination of its citizens.

Its vaccine drive could see the entire Israel population vaccinated before the end of the second half of this year.

South African Jewish Board of Deputies national director Wendy Kahn said: “It is encouraging to see the prioritisation that Israel has placed on vaccinating its citizens. We hope that this will be replicated in countries around the world, including ours.”

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Five million doses were expected, which targeted two million people, with health workers and those from the age of 60 being prioritised in the first phase, as Tel Aviv hoped to have vaccinated most of its 9.25 million population by April.

The vaccine drive plan was announced by Israeli Health Ministry head of international relations Dr Asher Salmon recently.

“We intend vaccinating as fast as possible to reduce morbidity and mortality,” he said.

The plan included a media work and information sessions to encourage vaccine compliance.

“We have targeted media campaigns to insured maximum participation. We want to convince people that vaccinating is the right thing to do,” Salmon said.

Israel is one of the countries that had obtained the vaccine from international pharmaceutical Pfizer.

Israel’s prime minister personally spoke to the Pfizer chief executive officer on many occasions to ensure his country
was prioritised.

He said Pfizer was able to send the vaccine early to Israel and that helped it to start sooner.

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“Negotiations were opened with suppliers early, contracts closed ahead of regulatory approval in order to ensure timely supplies,” he said.

Besides the aged and the medical staff, all pregnant women would have to consult their gynaecologists before being vaccinated so as to avoid complications that may affect unborn babies.

He said those aged 65 and above constituted 11.65% of the population and saving them as a vulnerable group was important part of the campaign.

“We are not going to vaccinate children under 16 years old. Children will have a different vaccine,” Salmon said.

He said while the programme was targeting Israelis, Palestinians working in the Israel hospitals and other health facilities were also being vaccinated.

“We have major interest to see that Palestinian citizens are vaccinated, they are our neighbours. It will be difficult to defeat the pandemic without vaccinating the Palestinians,” Salmon said.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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