After its first week in operation, staff manning the mobile vaccination vans have administered nearly 1 800 vaccines.

The City of Cape Town’s mobile vaccination vans are proving their worth, after just a week on the road.

The vans were rolled out as part of an initiative to take Covid-19 vaccinations to areas where access to vaccination sites is limited, or where vaccine registration is low.

Last week, a total of 1 785 vaccinations were administered at these mobile sites, including 110 at the City’s Paint City Safe Space in Bellville (pictured).

In addition, the recently opened Langa vaccination site administered 955 vaccinations in its first few weeks of operation.

‘The country’s vaccination campaign has experienced numerous shifts and changes, and this flexibility is necessary, considering the mammoth task we have at hand. I am very satisfied with the initial efforts by our mobile vaccination vans, and I am sure that the numbers will increase even more as we go along. I’m also very excited that we are now able to vaccinate persons without identity documents, using a paper-based system. This will allow us to further expand the net of vaccinated persons,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health, Councillor Zahid Badroodien.

The latest vaccination data indicates that just over 1 million people have registered in the metropole. While most of the eight health sub-districts in the city have registrations in excess of 100 000, the Klipfontein, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha sub-districts have been identified as areas that require more intervention.

It is hoped that the opening of the Athlone mass vaccination centre will go some way to improving the uptake in these areas, given its very central location, along with the decision to open vaccinations to the 18 – 34 age group earlier than scheduled.

Apart from our existing interventions, the City is also partnering with organisations to get their members vaccinated. One such collaboration was with the Cape Town City Ballet, where 20 of their members were vaccinated earlier this week (pictured). Talks are under way with other organisations and sporting bodies to have similar collaborations. The success of our vaccination campaign does not rest on government’s shoulders alone. It needs to be a collective effort, and we need community champions to help spread the message that the vaccines are our best shot at life beyond this pandemic,’ added Councillor Badroodien.

Source: City Of Cape Town