(Soweto) One vote, one vaccine: South Africa, late in its COVID-19 immunization campaign, took advantage of local elections on Monday to inoculate doses in ephemeral clinics set up near polling stations.
More than 26 million South Africans were called upon to choose their representatives in some 250 municipalities. A high-risk vote for the party in power since the end of apartheid, the African National Congress (ANC), which could for the first time fall below 50% of the vote.
Despite the epidemic of conspiracy
Under a tent set up prominently from the voting booths of a polling station in the township of Soweto, a suburb of Johannesburg, Jabulani Twala, a 47-year-old security guard, was vaccinated before going to cast his ballot in the ballot box, despite apprehensions.
People told me I would die from the vaccine, become sterile, and have a microchip implanted in me.
Jabulani Twala
Initially struggling to obtain vaccines, South Africa is now facing the reluctance of part of the population.
A thousand clinics like this have been set up near 23,000 polling stations across the country, targeting neighborhoods where vaccination uptake is low.
In some places, the queues for the vaccine were as long as those at the polling stations.
“Usually, we vaccinate 300 people a day here, but today we have seen an influx,” said Anne Simango, nurse at the Soweto pop-up clinic.
The vaccine, yes, the vote, no thank you
Masego Molebatsina, a 19-year-old student, also took advantage of these facilities to get vaccinated. But “I will not vote, it’s a waste of time,” she asserts. The vaccine, on the other hand, “saves lives,” she said.
With more than 2.9 million cases, including 89,000 deaths, South Africa is officially the African country most affected by the virus.
About 31% of the adult population has been fully immunized to date and the country has started immunizing children from the age of twelve. Authorities aim to immunize two-thirds of the 59 million population by January.
WHO warned last week that unless there is a significant acceleration, only five African countries (Seychelles, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Cape Verde) will reach the global target of 40% of the populations vaccinated by the end of the year. ‘year.