South Africa\u2019s private sector must be allowed to secure vaccines on their own to speed-up the slow roll out of Covid-19 shots, according to the head of the continent\u2019s biggest grocer.<\/p>\n
Shoprite \u201cwould certainly purchase for our employees to get those front-line people vaccinated as quickly as possible,\u201d chief executive officer Pieter Engelbrecht said by phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 25 million customers through our stores every month, so one can understand how critical it is for our people to be vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Africa, which started the inoculation of health-care workers last month, is likely to\u00a0miss its target\u00a0of vaccinating as many as 1.5 million people against the coronavirus by the end of March because sufficient shots aren\u2019t available.<\/p>\n
While some high-risk categories of people are due to be inoculated in May, fears are mounting that a resurgence in infections will hit as the country heads into its winter months.<\/p>\n
Shoprite employs more than 140,000 people through the operation of 2,892 stores and a network of distribution centers across Africa.<\/p>\n
While its food stores have remained open throughout South Africa\u2019s varying degrees of lockdown, trading at its\u00a0liquor, furniture and household-goods outlets have been halted at times.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than restrict trade, which causes injury to insult with unemployment and retrenchments,\u201d the focus needs to be on reaching so-called herd immunity to ensure the economy \u201ccan get started,\u201d Engelbrecht said.<\/p>\n