By Reuters Staff

       2 Min Read

       FILE PHOTO: South Africa's Police Minister Bheki Cele gestures before receiving a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine during a vaccine rollout to over 180,000 members of the South African Police Service (SAPS), in the township of Soweto, South Africa July 5, 2021. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

       JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa aims to have given at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to 35 million of its 60 million population by Christmas, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

       The country is the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic on the African continent in terms of recorded infections and deaths, and is experiencing a “third wave” of infections.

       Its vaccination campaign started slowly due to a mix of bureaucratic failures, bad luck and onerous negotiations with pharmaceutical companies.

       “We will be able to have vaccinated - at least one dose - to 35 million people before Christmas. That is the target that we have been set and that we are chasing,” Nicholas Crisp told a parliamentary committee.

       To date, South Africa has administered around 5.8 million doses of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson and two-dose Pfizer vaccines.

       The pace of daily vaccinations has picked up in recent days, with the health ministry data showing on Wednesday that more than 250,000 vaccinations had been administered in the past 24 hours.

       Reporting by Alexander WinningEditing by Mark Heinrich and Richard Chang

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