SOUTH Africa’s national Covid-19 vaccine rollout has run for just over three weeks, yet one of the country’s long-standing challenges is already hampering efforts to inoculate two-thirds of the population this year: inequality.
People over 60 years old are eligible for Covid-19 shots during the current phase of the plan, which began May 17 following the delayed arrival of doses from BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc.
Yet registration for a shot can only be done online or by mobile phone, potentially excluding those without the right tech or someone to help them.
The process is also in English, just one of the country’s 11 official languages.
While it’s a widely understood second language, only a little over 8% of households speak it at home, according to Statistics South Africa.
The setup also favors those with private health insurance, or about 16% of the population, who tend to be higher earners.
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