My Fellow South Africans,
This evening, I would like to begin by telling you about the experience we have had as a nation in one week in the work we are doing in the health care system in one of our provinces.
Between the dates of 14 and 20 August this year, the Western Cape Department of Health compiled figures on people above the age of 60 who were infected with COVID-19.
Only 30 out of 729 people above the age of 60 who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19 that week had been vaccinated.
This means that 699 of those were not vaccinated. And of the 292 people above the age of 60 who died from COVID-19 that week, 287 of them were not vaccinated, meaning only 5 were vaccinated.
In other words, 96 per cent of the people over 60 who were hospitalised in the province and more than 98 per cent of the people over 60 who died were not vaccinated.
A similar pattern has emerged in hospitals across the country.
We know that a vaccinated person can still be infected and can still pass on the virus to others.