This week, South Africa administered 181,118 doses of the double-shot Pfizer vaccine, bringing the total to 348,204 by the morning of 28 May.
Only about 1.6 million people are currently registered on the Electronic Vaccination Data System, out of about 4.6 million over 60 years old.
Gauteng administered 192,454 of these doses by 27 May, byt which day 429,216 of its residents had registered to receive the vaccine.
KwaZulu-Natal vaccinated 84,077 people between 24 and 27 May.
By 27 May, the Northern Cape had vaccinated 4,048 people since 17 May.
In the Free State, 40,300 had received their first Pfizer dose by 28 May. More than 18,000 of these are in Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality alone.
Meanwhile, President Cyril Ramaphosa welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron on his first state visit to South Africa. They were scheduled to visit the Vaccine Production Support Initiative for Africa at the University of Pretoria on 28 May.
Daily Maverick webinar on Thursday they shared some of the lessons learnt from this study.
For a scientist, it was incredible to witness something you have spent months or years working on being used in the field, said Bekker.
“The most extraordinary thing was that on 27 January we knew that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had strong efficacy results and then, not even a month later, we were putting the jab into our president’s arm… I stood there and I was gobsmacked and speechless at the momentous occasion of it,” she said.
“These are the moments we live for, right? This is why I do this. I can see the public health benefit right in front of my eyes.”
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NATIONAL NEWS - South African elite athletes will be vaccinated through the Sisonke Study ahead of international sporting events including the Tokyo Games kicking off in July.
This comes after the approval granted by the South African Health Product Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) to make available a “modest” number of the remaining COVID-19 Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine doses to support the nation before they expire.
According to the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the vaccination of these athletes, although not compulsory will take place at various vaccination sites throughout the country.
“After concluding the phase 3B open-label components of the healthcare worker study, the Sisonke investigators made an urgent application to SAHPRA requesting them to waiver the eligibility criteria to include persons of high priority to the nation, including the Olympic and Paralympic team to be allowed access to the Ad26 SARS-CoV-2 i