The department of health says Covid-19 vaccination increased by 15% in the over 50 cohort after its R200 Vooma voucher incentive was offered.

On Friday spokesperson Foster Mohale told TimesLIVE more than 112,000 people had claimed the vouchers by Thursday. 

“The number of over-50s getting vaccinated was declining quickly and these vouchers have stopped further decline. We don’t have the full analysis but we estimate the vouchers led to a 15% higher uptake than previous trends had projected,” he said.

Mohale said the incentive was well received in poorer communities. 

“Feedback from health workers in the provinces is that the vouchers were very well received and recipients in poorer communities were very appreciative.”

He said the department was considering expanding the programme to younger people to boost the vaccination drive in that cohort. 

“We are exploring options to extend incentives to younger groups, such as free data in partnership with mobile network operators.”

The Gauteng health department made the last call for the group to get vaccinated before the programme finishes at the end of the month.

The incentive was R100 at the launch in November and was doubled the next month to boost vaccine uptake among this cohort.