Anti-crime and community activist, Yusuf Abramjee, said that they are hoping to have double the amount of people vaccinated in the coming week. The drive-through vaccination site currently vaccinates about 500 people daily and have managed to administer 1 000 vaccinations during their first weekend.

Makhura visited the raceway site and thanked the volunteers.

“I want to thank the volunteers here and urge them to push to ensure we at least reach 1 000 vaccinations daily. To assist them with their efforts, we will set up an additional pop-up site here as well,” said Makhura.

He continued: “We will do what we can to increase the capacity to ensure that people do not take too long to vaccinate. We are visiting several sites in because Gauteng still has a summit to climb. We’ve only reached 1.1 million out of 11 million adults and we still have a long way to go.”

Speaking at the raceway course, Makhura confirmed that since the national COVID-19 vaccine rollout opened to people 18 and over, it has picked up significantly in Gauteng where almost 70 000 are jabbed daily.

“We have not only recovered from the drop in numbers we experienced two weeks ago, but we’ve also been able to achieve new milestones,” he said.

“I really want to commend the millennials, they’ve helped in driving those numbers,” Makhura added in reference to last Friday’s figures which indicated that at least 71 000 doses had been administered.

‘COVID-19 will hurt more’

Mike Bryan, a medical student at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU), has been volunteering at the site and is encouraging people to get vaccinated so that everyone can go back to normal.

“I volunteer because the more people we vaccinate, the sooner we can go back to our normal lives,” he said.

He added: “This vaccine is safe, there is nothing to be worried about. The prick might hurt but I can assure you that COVID-19 will hurt more if you are not vaccinated. The healthcare system is overwhelmed as it is, and if people get vaccinated, it will at least give healthcare workers a break. They have been at it since day one.”

Younger men showing how it’s done

To date, Gauteng has administered almost 2.9 million doses but only 1.1 million people have been fully vaccinated.

Makhura was also very pleased with men showing up to get vaccinated. They are still lagging behind women (55,5%) but there has been an increase of 1.5% from 43% to 44.5%.

Young man gives a thumbs-up after being vaccinated.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura praised young men who have helped in increasing COVID-19 vaccination numbers in the province. (Photo: supplied)