SA businesses need to plan today for phase 3 of the vaccine rollout

To get the economy and businesses firing on all cylinders again, SA businesses need to plan today already for phase three of the vaccine rollout. This was the view of a panel of experts speaking at a recent webinar hosted by Old Mutual Corporate on the topic ‘building immunity is everyone’s business’.

Speaking at the event (see video below), Malusi Ndlovu, Old Mutual Corporate Director: Large Enterprises, said business has a vital role to play in supporting the Government's vaccine rollout. "We view developing population immunity as a shared responsibility and a great opportunity to boost productivity and confidence". Ndlovu says “the onus is on us as the private sector not to be a bystander but to help lead the shared-value approach”.

According to academics on the panel, South Africa is currently in the lull before a third wave of the pandemic, which is likely to start as early as mid-May and carries the risk of being up to 25% more severe than the second wave putting the economy at risk. With two-thirds of South Africans indicating they are happy to be vaccinated, up to 33% said they would prefer not to be vaccinated or undecided, putting the spotlight on COVID-19 education programmes at the workplace.