{"id":211818,"date":"2021-12-18T01:39:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-17T23:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/jab-before-you-jive-urges-minister-of-health\/"},"modified":"2021-12-18T01:39:17","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T23:39:17","slug":"jab-before-you-jive-urges-minister-of-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/jab-before-you-jive-urges-minister-of-health\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Jab before you jive,’ urges Minister of Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has urged people to take the COVID-19 jab in their numbers during the festive season after announcing that vaccination sites will remain open over the holiday period.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWe also call upon South Africans to celebrate this festive season with a lot of caution, especially with regard to alcohol consumption,\u201d Phaahla said on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur health facilities are already under a lot of pressure with the COVID-19 as we indicated a 70% rise in admissions and we\u2019re least ready to handle large numbers of casualties, from motor vehicle accidents and also interpersonal violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the media that healthcare workers are physically and emotionally exhausted after nearly two years into the pandemic.  <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we plead to think of them as we celebrate this festive season,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the people of our country express our gratitude to all our health workers who continue to sacrifice their own lives and those of their families and their lives while caring for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said citizens should honour frontline workers by ensuring they celebrate the festive season responsibly and by getting the jab. <\/p>\n

The Minister expressed dismay about the \u201cdrastic\u201d decline in the uptake of vaccination, especially in the last seven to 10 days. \u201cThere was an uptick immediately after the announcement of the new variant, but the numbers have gone down quite drastically.\u201d<\/p>\n

On average, the department has been administering between 100 000 and 130 000 during midweek. According to Phaahla, this was a far cry from the target to reach at least over 250 000 people per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are well short of vaccine coverage for us to reach population immunity and protect the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also warned that COVID-19 remains very active, as the number of new infections and hospitalisations continues to rise.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the country recorded over 24 000 new COVID-19 cases..<\/p>\n

Once again, Phaahla said a reliable weapon against COVID-19 is the lifesaving jab.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of us will be moving from places of work in the cities to our rural places and holiday destinations. We’ll be celebrating Christmas and New Year with relatives and friends who will be travelling for many hours in private cars, taxis, buses, trains and airplanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has called on holidaymakers to adhere to health and safety measures as they travel. <\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all precautions, we should get our jab before we go on jolling and jab before you jive and ensure that we\u2019re fully vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, there is an increasing number of new daily infections and positivity rate in all provinces, except Gauteng.<\/p>\n

NICD\u2019s Head of Public Health Surveillance and Response, Dr Michelle Groome said Omicron was the dominant strain in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also an increase in hospitalisations in all provinces,\u201d she said, adding that there has been a peak in deaths in all provinces but in the Northern Cape and Western Cape.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the variant, Groome said vaccination, mask-wearing, social distancing and limiting large gatherings would curb the spread of the virus. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla has urged people to take the COVID-19 jab in their numbers during the festive season after announcing that vaccination sites will remain open over the holiday period.   \u201cWe also call upon South Africans to celebrate this festive season with a lot of caution, especially with regard to alcohol consumption,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-211818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/jab-before-you-jive-urges-minister-of-health.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}