[imagesource: Pavel Petrov / Dreamstime]

As of last week, you can now choose when and where you want to get your COVID-19 jab.

While private businesses like Discovery may be able to mandate that employees are vaccinated from January 1, it remains a choice for the general population.

However, in order to encourage South Africans to make that choice, our government is looking at a number of incentives.

Other countries have offered cash, which is in very short supply around these parts, so instead, other options are on the table.

On Friday, Minister of Health Dr. Joe Phaahla outlined a few of those, reports Business Insider SA:

“At this stage it’s not our priority to even start thinking about some kind of legislation or regulation which says [that] every adult must vaccinate… so we’ll observe that debate [but] we don’t want to get involved,” said Phaahla…

Instead, the government’s plan of encouragement and incentivisation focuses primarily on access to sporting events, entertainment venues, and other social gatherings for those who can prove they’ve been fully vaccinated.

Under the varying levels of lockdown which have been imposed over the past 17 months, access to matches at stadiums and nightclubs have remained strictly prohibited.

If you want to go watch your favourite sports team in action or let loose on the dancefloor, you may need to prove that you’re jabbed.

On the flip side, choose not to participate, and you may end up being denied entry.

No, before anybody makes the commonly used and utterly ridiculous comparison, this is not at all like Apartheid or Nazi Germany.

Phaahla added that proposals tabled to government, with input from the department of sport, arts and culture, would be finalised “in the next few days or so”.

We should know soon enough.

On Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa also addressed the question of mandatory vaccines.

Below via AP News:

“No one should be forced to be vaccinated,” said Ramaphosa, answering questions in parliament Friday. “Instead, we need to use the available scientific evidence to encourage — repeat encourage — people to be vaccinated to protect themselves, but also to protect people around them.”

…“This situation poses challenges for employers who want to keep their workers safe from COVID-19, while respecting the rights of those who don’t want to be vaccinated,” Ramaphosa said.

Phaahla has stressed that restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and other businesses are responsible for setting their own policies on whether or not patrons must be vaccinated.

You can choose not to get the jab, and private businesses can choose not to allow you through their doors.

Simple.

[sources:businsidersa&apnews]