Pretoria - Tshwane's 18 to 34 age group have come out in their numbers to get their dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in the hopes of getting life back to normal and helping the country to finally achieve herd immunity.
The decision to open up vaccinations to people aged 18 to 34 was announced yesterday after Cabinet said it had approved the vaccination of youths to commence as part of increasing the vaccine roll-out in the country and supported by the recommendation of the National Coronavirus Command Council.
Some youth who had witnessed the impact of the Covid-19 virus close to home said they began registering on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) Self Registration Portal as of midnight in order to get their jabs as soon as possible.
Husain Thoken, 23, said he had been waiting to get a chance to get the vaccination as he believed it is the only way the country could be able to move forward if as many people as possible get vaccinated.
Thoken opted to get his vaccine at the drive-in vaccination site located at the Zwartkops Raceway along the R55 in Laudium.
"I got a lot of my life taken away as a result of this pandemic and I just want it to end now. My campus and social life are none existent and I've lost people to this virus already. So I just want to play my part and get vaccinated."
Thoken said another reason he was eager to get vaccinated was due to the fact that he had also contracted the virus two months prior and had, unfortunately, lost both his grandparents in one week due to Covid-19 related complications.
"I am trying to encourage a lot of people to get vaccinated because it's the way forward. But from what I see from social media and interacting with my friends many of them have already registered to get vaccinated so that's a positive step."
Lwazi Mnguni, 29, said he always wanted to get vaccinated even though he was initially hesitant but he opted to get his jab as most of his family members had already been vaccinated and they were still doing fine.
"I have stuff to do and accomplishments that are worth living for and I don't want to die at a young age. My boss's wife got Covid-19 and she passed away so I want to avoid that fate."
"If you have something worth living for and still want to live I would say people should come out in their numbers. For me, I'm realising that it (Covid-19) is going to continue manifesting more variants so this is just to prevent death."
Pretoria News