South Africa’s president delivered a rare shot of good news to people in the continent’s coronavirus hotspot: the nation’s second wave appears to be abating, and the government will soon launch a vaccination campaign for health workers.
The Monday address, delivered live on national television, was a departure from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s usual tone. For nearly a year, Ramaphosa has the been the bearer of grim news, talking of deaths, rising caseloads and burdened hospitals, of lockdowns and restrictions and of endless reminders, like a chiding father, reminding people to wear your mask, wash your hands.
South Africa is the continent’s viral hotspot, with 1.4 million confirmed cases and more than 44,000 COVID-19 deaths since the virus arrived in March. The nation experienced the start of a second wave of the virus, featuring a new variant that is significantly more contagious, in late December.
But this week, a ray of hope: earlier Monday, the president and top ministers stood on the sodden airport tarmac in Johannesburg to greet the arrival of 1 million vaccine doses. Ramaphosa said they will , in the next two weeks, make their way into the arms of frontline healthcare workers. After that, Ramaphosa said, the country will vaccinate 40 million people — about 67 percent of the population — by year’s end. He emphasized that no one will be required to take the vaccine.
He spoke live on national TV late Monday.
“Fellow South Africans, the first set of good news is the arrival of the vaccine today,” he said. “The second is that we have recorded our lowest daily increase in infections. Since the beginning of December of last year, in fact, the average rate of new infections has been steadily coming down over the last three weeks, indicating that we have now passed the peak of the second wave.”