The North West Provincial Government says it is committed to vaccinating all registered senior citizens in July, as the province tackles the third wave of COVID-19 infections.
“We will continue to reach out to these individuals so that more of the senior citizens are reached through outreach sites, especially in the far-flung and rural areas,” said Premier Tebogo Job Mokgoro.
The Premier said the province will employ the services of local authorities to ensure the effective mobilisation of targeted individuals.
“We request the media to pass this message to communities to motivate them to register and present themselves for vaccination at the vaccination sites.”
Mokgoro was updating the media on Thursday on the provincial government’s response to the recently increasing number of infections and the vaccination rollout programme.
The North West has vaccinated 133 212 individuals as of 25 June 2021. This includes healthcare workers, senior citizens in old age homes and communities, and the Department of Basic Education staff.
Vaccines
He said the province has received 19 200 Johnson & Johnson (J&J) doses and a further 24 000 are expected this week.
In three days, 155 00 doses (80.7%) of allocated doses were administered to staff of all age groups which is an average of 5 166 doses per day.
“This was achieved by activating 26 additional vaccination sites across the province.”
The Premier thanked the Departments of Basic Education and Health for this milestone.
“At this rate, we should be able to complete the vaccination of staff of the Department of Basic Education before the end date.”
In addition, 23 101 healthcare workers were vaccinated under phase one, while close to 95 000 doses of Pfizer vaccines have been distributed in phase two, which started on 17 May.
“The beneficiaries at this stage are the senior citizens of our province which are the most vulnerable to severe COVID-19 disease and mortality.”
He said 169 102 of the estimated 367 000 senior citizens have registered to get their vaccination.
“This is close to the 50% and we need to increase the registration of this vulnerable group through self and assisted registration.”
In addition, the 14 vaccination sites being used to inoculate the elderly have been increased to 20 this week.
The Premier said outreach services will continue and transport will be arranged for those who have difficulties reaching the sites.
“The plan is to escalate all the 40 sites to general rollout in July,” he said, adding that this will coincide with the vaccination of those who are aged between 50 and 59.
He reminded the citizens that the registration for those over 50 starts today.
“We will also have to administer the second dose of Pfizer vaccine shortly. The qualifying individuals will be scheduled by Electronic Vaccination Data System for the second dose in our various vaccination sites.”
He said the province is aiming to vaccinate over 10 000 people per day, as more sites are expanded.
Hotspots
Meanwhile, in the next two weeks, the provincial government will work towards strengthening the COVID-19 public awareness campaigns targeting malls in hot spots such as Matlosana, Rustenburg, and Mahikeng.
Their interventions also include heightening law enforcement on regulations, deploying Command Council members to municipal wards to monitor and promote the registration campaign and vaccination programmes.
He said government will also collaborate with civil society on its efforts to contain the surge.
Source: South African Government News Agency