Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi will conduct an oversight visit at West Rand vaccination sites. The West Rand is the last of the five Gauteng health districts to open vaccination sites over the weekend.
Vaccine sites open over the weekend:
This will increase the province’s weekend sites from 16 to 26. Gauteng Health Spokesperson Motalatala Modiba says this will help them reach more people including those who are unable to get their vaccines on weekdays due to their work schedules.
“This move is aimed at ensuring that we continue to provide support across all our vaccination sites. And also to ramp up the vaccination program. Gauteng’s vaccination roll out programme is gaining momentum, and this is reflected by a record of one million vaccines administered during the month of July. The total number of vaccinations now stands at over 2 million.”
Mpumalanga vaccine roll out
Mpumalanga Health MEC, Sasekani Manzini, says about 14% of the total population in the province has been vaccinated for COVID-19. She says the aim is to reach 67% to get to the herd immunity that the government has set out.
Manzini says they are targeting different areas of employment including farms, taxi ranks and malls. She has encouraged people to go and vaccinate even if they have not been registered.
Manzini has also appealed to people to stop spreading fake news as it scares off those who are willing to take the vaccine.
“As a province we manage to vaccinate over 447 652 as from yesterday and this is 14.6% of the people and we also want to request our people that they must not spread fake news that will make our people to be scared to go and vaccinate. Also that those that have registered or not registered must just walk into all our facilities. We are able to assist in terms of registration and be vaccinated in all our sites.”
COVID-19 stats:
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has reported 13 652 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases to 2 511 178.
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A further 479 COVID-19 related deaths have also been reported.
The Western Cape has now recorded 4 128 new coronavirus cases followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 2 673 and Gauteng with 2 534 new cases.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says more COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to arrive in the country. He says he’s pleased that government has been able to vaccinate over 8.3 million people so far.
Phaahla says they are vaccinating around 200 000 people per day. With the help of private pharmacies, the government is working towards administering a million shots every three days.
Phaahla was giving an update on the department’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday morning.
“We are rolling out more and more sites including small towns and rural areas. Also on small pharmacists. It’s not only the big ones, your Clicks and Dischems but the independent pharmacists. We appreciate them,” says Phaahla.
