Council chamber earmarked for Covid vaccination programme

Patients from four clinics in the Pretoria Central area will be vaccinated at the council chamber in Sammy Marks Square come mid-May, instead of at the clinics themselves.

“The Skinner Street clinic as well as the FF Rebeiro, Danville and Folang clinics will not be conducting phase 2 of the Covid-19 vaccination programme,” said Skinner Street clinic operations manager Sr Blossom Rantloane.

Instead, they will be vaccinated at Sammy Marks.

Rantloane said these health facilities had insufficient space to run the programme successfully.

“Patients should, however, not worry about any stampedes. They will be properly directed at Sammy Marks.”

The vaccination programme would be done in line with the national government vaccination plan.

Addressing the nation on Tuesday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government was anticipating large numbers of people over the period of six months during this second phase.

People who are over 60 and those with comorbidities would be prioritised.

“This phase will ensure we protect our communities and prevent health services from being overwhelmed. It will reduce the need for lockdowns that seriously disrupt education, the economy and all of our lives,” he said.

He announced vaccination registration would begin this month (April), and encouraged people to register online.

Those without online access will be able to register in person.

He said over two thousand vaccination sites had been identified in the entire country.

“These include general practitioners’ rooms, community clinics and pharmacies, retail outlets and in some instances, larger facilities like stadiums and conference centres.”

The vaccine rollout and directing of people to their nearest vaccination sites would be managed by an electronic vaccination data system.

“Everyone who will be vaccinated must be registered on the system first.”

Provincial, district structures and community-based organisations will register people who do not have access to technology.

Ramaphosa said, as part of the Sisonke trial, more than 250 000 health workers had been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

He said the country had secured 11 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which is effective against the dominant variants in South Africa. The country had secured a further 20 million doses and was finalising the agreement with Johnson & Johnson.

The government was also finalising an agreement for 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses, he said.

“Together, this supply of vaccines would provide enough doses to vaccinate 41 million people in the country.”

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram