Businesses benefit from Covid-19 vaccine outreach
Shortly after the announcement of the registration of citizens aged 18 to 34, the health facility saw a steady increase in numbers in this age group going to the hospital for vaccines.
After noting that only a small number of citizens aged 35 and over were getting Covid-19 vaccines, Port Shepstone Regional Hospital management collaborated with various companies in Marburg to conduct a vaccination outreach programme, which started successfully last week.
Employees were vaccinated at the following companies: MB Workwear, Junrea Clothing, Golden Glo Candle and Soap, Sunola Oils Mills, Ravin’s Auto Centre and Bargain Wholesalers.
“These efforts would have ensured amazing results if our outreach team had found employees of these companies registered on the Electronic Vaccination Database System (EVDS). Despite this challenge, we have been able to vaccinate 191 staff and due to the exceptional dedication of our outreach team led by deputy nursing manager Mandisa Maqutu,” said hospital PRO Phumza Morai.
Shortly after the announcement of the registration of citizens aged 18 to 34, the health facility saw a steady increase in numbers in this age group going to the hospital for vaccines.
As of May 17, 2021 Port Shepstone Regional Hospital has vaccinated more than 37 000 citizens.
“When analysing our new Covid-19 infections, we noted that the risk of infection is still high in groups of people who have not been vaccinated. As it has been proven that vaccines provide protection against adverse Covid-19 outcomes, we encourage citizens to get involved in the fight against the epidemic by going out in large numbers to get vaccinated,” added Phumza.
To avoid delays at vaccination sites, people are urged to register using one of the following methods:
* Visit https://vaccine.enrol.health.gov.za
* Use a USSD by dialling *134*832*I.D N.O #
* WhatsApp to 0600123456
* Call the toll free number 0800 029 999.
According to the latest statistics, the Ugu District has nearly 22 000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and recorded over 700 deaths. To date, just over 19 000 have recovered from the virus.
With KwaZulu-Natal in the third wave of the pandemic, Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has also sounded alarm bells over ‘Covid-19 fatigue’ warning that in the face of rising new infections, citizens can ill-afford to be complacent.
As new cases soar, the MEC expressed concern that many people now appear to be taking the pandemic for granted, to the point where they have stopped taking non-pharmaceutical measures, such as the wearing of masks, washing their hands with soap and water or hand sanitiser, and practising social distancing.
“We know that, perhaps because we talk about Covid-19 on a daily basis, people may feel like they’re growing ‘tired’ of consuming this information. But the truth is that things are really getting bad. We’ve been saying in the past months that we were not in the third wave…and it seemed as though when it would eventually come, we would not be hit that hard. But in the past two weeks or so, we’ve seen an exponential growth in the number of new daily infections, which is extremely concerning,” added MEC Simelane.
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