Children could boost vaccine uptake in adult population - expert
A public health expert says the vaccination of children could help increase the uptake of the Covid-19 jabs among the older population.
The Health Department says it's this week opening Covid-19 vaccinations to 12 to 17-year-olds.
The number of adults going to get jabs has slowed somewhat.
Stellenbosch University's Dr Kerrin Begg says the youngsters might help change this.
"Those individuals who are young people who will certainly try to diminish the overall transmission chain, but the impact will not be as high if we were vaccinating older people.
"So what we would have loved to see is that every young person take their parent or grandparent along wilt them to get vaccinated."
Begg also believes government is missing an opportunity by not combining voting day with a big vaccination drive.
She says pop-up vaccinations stations could be set up at big voting stations and parties could encourage people to get jabbed.
"A political party should be using that opportunity to encourage vaccination but certainly they should also be making sure that their campaigning should be reasonable, ensuring that everybody is wearing masks - that everybody is fully distanced and preferably the campaigning should be happening outside (the voting station)."
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