Pretoria - Fake news about the alleged effects of being vaccinated can be blamed for the vaccine hesitancy which is worrying the government, Deputy President David Mabuza said on Thursday.
“It is important for all of us to vaccinate, and that is why we are here. We are still going to visit our people in their people because the message must now go to them. We are no longer going to wait here at the vaccination sites,” said Mabuza, flanked by Gauteng Premier David Makhura and Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi during a Covid-19 vaccines rollout outreach programme at Mogale City in Gauteng’s West Rand.
“We are going to take the vaccine to our people. Some are reluctant, some are having fake news, rumours about the vaccine … so we explain to our people that the vaccine is something that will help them and not something that will kill.”
Accompanied by members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Covid-19 Vaccines, the government team was assessing Gauteng rollout of the vaccine programme.
The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Covid-19 Vaccines identified three provinces falling short of their set targets to reach population immunity, including Gauteng. The IMC then resolved to visit the areas in South Africa experiencing low turnout.
The West Rand District Municipality has been identified as the lowest performing sub-district, with only eight percent of the total population vaccinated.
Mabuza said the government was intensifying its campaign to have people vaccinated.
“We are going to go down to families, not [only] here in Gauteng, we will be going to North West, Mpumalanga, the Western Cape because we must reach that target of the 31st of December,” he said.
Mabuza said there has been a low uptake of the vaccine in some areas because the communities lack information.
“We need to get out of this situation. We can’t be in this situation. Our people have lost jobs. So we must push and pull ourselves out of this problem,” he said.
Makhura said there will be a turnaround in the vaccination figures for the West Rand community which is predominantly a mining community.
African News Agency (ANA)