By Staff Reporter
Since the beginning of the vaccination programme in February this year, by 19th July a total of 97 522 people has been vaccinated in the province. This includes the Sisonke Access Programme for health care workers in Phase 1, Phase 2 of Pfizer for the over 35s and people working in Basic Education and South African Police Services.
In our endeavour to increase coverage of Covid-19 inoculation, the Provincial Health MEC, Mr Maruping Lekwene will this week undertake an oversight visit to support vaccination rollout in the social development sector starting today, 21st July 2021. This will be followed by correctional services launching its vaccination on Thursday, 22 July 2021.
The MEC is elated to note a record high of 29 783 people vaccinated during last week and with other sectors activated, this will ensure vaccination improvement in the Province. The average daily vaccination was 5 957 compared to 3 528 the previous week, and with more sites opening over the weekends, we plan to register a new target rising to 10 000 vaccinations per day.
Provincially, there are over 90 permanent and temporary vaccination sites run by the public and private health sectors. In addition to this, the Department has intensified its rollout campaign by means of conducting regular outreach visits to far-flung areas in all local municipalities on a weekly basis.
Members of the public eligible for vaccination are advised to follow the weekly vaccination schedule published by the department on its social media platforms and other available community platforms, as part of our efforts to increase vaccination rollout and achieve herd immunity in the province.
MEC Lekwene is also encouraged by the registration of the people on the national Electronic Vaccination Data System, or EVDS. He further encourages everyone eligible for vaccination including those awaiting SMS messages to make use of walk-ins as they are permissible and people will be assisted by our able and capable health teams.
The department is undertaking all necessary measures to combat vaccine hesitancy in our province, while eliminating all barriers to accessing the vaccination sites.
The MEC wishes to thank all health care staff for their sterling work, as well as stakeholders for supporting this program. He also thanked all members of the public who were vaccinated or who registered to be vaccinated at a later date.
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