The City of Tshwane says despite the delay in the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, it is prepared to roll out the vaccine to healthcare workers. This as the City continues its COVID-19 ward-based outreach screening and testing program in identified hotspots to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The City is one of the COVID-19 hotspots in the country. It says it has identified 73 primary healthcare facilities including 24 clinics it manages as vaccination venues.
The Karen Park Clinic in the north of Pretoria is one such venue. The clinic has already identified a room to prepare for the vaccination for healthcare workers who are first in line to get the vaccine.
Karen Park Clinic Manager, Patricia Mothupi says her facility like many others identified in the city is ready for the vaccine rollout as soon as it begins.
“We have gone through sessions where we talked about it. I think most of the nurses and whoever works in the clinic understands the need. This will not be our first, we have had flu vaccines in the past. So, at the present moment what we are doing, we’re trying to negotiate with the rest of us so that we are prepared so that we can get the vaccine but at the same time also get people, vaccinators. We’re busy with training it is ongoing at the present moment.”
The City of Tshwane says it is in constant communication with both national and provincial authorities regarding vaccine rollout.
“There is a constant feedback loop between us and the provincial government on this. The mayor is meeting weekly with the premier and with other mayors in the province to provide our feedback and to indicate what we have done proactively to make sure we’re ready when vaccines are made available to us,” says the City of Tshwane Mayoral Spokesperson, Jordan Griffiths.
Tshwane municipality says it’s all systems go for COVID-19 vaccine rollout:
Readiness for rollout
The City’s MMC for Health, Sakkie du Plooy visited Karen Park Clinic to assess its readiness for the rollout of the vaccine. Du Plooy says the staff to be employed in vaccination has been trained.
“The City of Tshwane is prepared. We have trained a number of nurses for all our clinics. We are here at Karen Park Clinic and we have trained 39 nurses for our 24 clinics. We’re ready as far as that is concerned. We also have clinics where people can come free of charges, those who wish to and we’ve even started to register our people. I’ve even registered myself and my staff started to register, all the staff in the department is busy with the process. We are actually just waiting for the vaccine to come.”
The City says it will need 22 000 doses of vaccine in the first phase to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers. SA awaits another consignment from Johnson & Johnson which is expected in the country next week.
The national government has decided to delay the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine after preliminary research showed it to be less effective against the new variant:
