SA business group to help vaccinate 160 000 a day

South Africa’s biggest business grouping will help private industry administer 160 000 coronavirus vaccinations a day, according to Martin Kingston, chairman of the steering committee at Business for South Africa.

Vaccines will be administered via pharmacies, employer sites and large-scale sites developed by medical insurance providers and others, Kingston said Friday in an online press conference. “No citizen will be denied,” he said.

South African financial services group Discovery previously said it has plans in place to vaccinate 3 million of its medical insurance members against the coronavirus, with the capacity to inoculate 50 000 people a day.

This comes as South Africa starts asking people over the age of 60 to register for the vaccine. The country has been slow to roll out its vaccination program and has now had to pause the distribution of doses because of uncertainty about Johnson & Johnson inoculations and blood clots. South Africa had vaccinated 292 623 health-care workers as of April 15.