In an effort to ramp up vaccinations, the health department is offering free transport to vaccination sites for people aged 50 years and older.
The initiative, in collaboration with civil society partners, was announced this week and is offered to people in certain parts of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng until the first week of September.
This comes after an announcement by health minister Joe Phaahla last week during a media briefing that the government has joined hands with various sectors of society to make every possible effort to increase access to vaccines, which includes taking vaccines to communities.
“Since the start of the vaccination rollout programme, more than 50% of people over the age of 60 years have been vaccinated,” said health spokesperson Popo Maja.
“The department has significantly increased access to vaccines by increasing the number of sites from 200 at the start to almost 2,500 public and private vaccination sites.”
He said the government remained concerned that many elderly people, who are at the highest risk of severe disease and death from Covid-19, were not getting vaccinated.
In June, Uber SA offered 100,000 free rides until July 8 to help school staff get vaccinated.
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