Limpopo accelerates vaccine roll-out
With the 37 approved vaccination sites and 92 community outreach sites, clients are now encouraged to wait for their SMSs before coming to the site and walk-in clients will continue to be slotted in available time-slots whenever possible; however, priority will be given to those with SMSs.
SEKHUKHUNE – The Limpopo Department of Health has activated all its 37 approved vaccination sites and
92 community outreach teams.
This was done in order to improve access to the vaccination in an equitable manner to all citizens in the province.
Since the commencement of phase 2 of the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out on May 17, the department has so far expanded from the initial six Pfizer sites to 20 over a three-week period, excluding outreach sites.
“The demand from our senior citizens aged 60 and above to receive the vaccine has been overwhelming. Despite having limited vaccines, we were able to deal with the high volumes of our senior citizens visiting our sites,” said Limpopo MEC for health, Phophi Ramathuba.
From the beginning, Limpopo accepted walk-ins as a result of conditions on the ground, and never left any patient without an SMS.
With the 37 approved vaccination sites and 92 community outreach sites, clients are now encouraged to wait for their SMSs before coming to the site and walk-in clients will continue to be slotted in available time-slots whenever possible; however, priority will be given to those with SMSs.
This will allow each site to take a limited number of people per day, because the limited vaccine dosages received per week will be equally distributed to all 37 sites, with priority being given to sites opening for the first time, as opposed to being distributed only among a few sites currently.
“We have noted some villages in the far-flung areas make it difficult for our senior citizens to access vaccines sites. As such, the department has been able to reach out to those areas through our outreach teams and will continue to do so. We call upon our people to remain patient as we will reach out to every single senior citizen; they remain our priority.
“As a province we are encouraged and humbled by an increase in the number of people registered and continuing to register and present themselves in their numbers for vaccination.
“More than 120 000 people in the province have already received their vaccines while more than 405 000 have already registered. Equally, we are proud of both our registration teams assisting senior citizens and our vaccination teams that continue to make sure no senior citizens who present themselves at our sites for vaccination is turned away unless the vaccine is finished.
“Our vaccination outreach teams go to the extent of delivering vaccines to our golden boys and girls who are 90 years and above in their own households. We want to applaud them for their dedication and commitment they continue to show in the middle of this pandemic,” said Ramathuba.
