About 54 percent of South Africans say they are unlikely to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and nearly half say they believe prayer provides more protection than injections against the disease, a survey showed.
The Afrobarometer survey of 1,600 South Africans highlights a obstacle to the government’s campaign to inoculate two-thirds of its 60 million people in an attempt to curb infections in the country, what is the country most affected by the disease in Africa, according to official statistics.
Hesitation is greatest among those under 35 and among the poor, according to the survey.
The survey, conducted in May and June, has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, Afrobarometer said Wednesday.
South Africa has registered more than 2.4 million coronavirus infections and nearly 71 thousand deaths. While more than 7 million doses of vaccines have been administered in the country, only 2.69 million people are fully vaccinated.
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