Informal sector next in line for jab rollout

This was revealed at a media briefing on Friday morning by Acting Minister of Health Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane and a team of experts on government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Barry Kistnasamy says the vaccination drive in the taxi industry will be piloted in Gauteng from next week.

He says over and above this, 145 more vaccination sites will be launched in the country.

"One informal, the taxi sector starting next week in Gauteng. In terms of the next month we are planning 145 site in terms of the roll out, you can see the bulk are in mining because they have had quite substantive occupational health sites, we have then tried to look at some of the other sectors as well.

READ: Kubayi-Ngubane slams South Africans for not adhering to Covid regulations

Meanwhile, a medical expert's been explaining why Covid vaccines appear to be less effective than desired.

Professor Helen Rees says vaccine development and efficacy have been slow to keep up with the ongoing mutation of the virus.

Rees, who is with SA Health Products Regulatory Authority, said:  "None of these Covid vaccines are 100 percent effective. Some in the early studies appeared to be more effective than others but none are 100 percent effective.

"The second thing is that none of these vaccines were initially developed to be effective against the variant what we call the Beta variant circulating in Snout Africa. They were all developed against the original virus that came from Wuhan. Not all vaccines are equal in this regard and we have to look at every vaccine independently."