Makhura visits Joburg vaccine venues as Gauteng adds more pop-up sites

Amid concerns over the decline in the number of South Africans getting vaccinated against Covid-19, Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Tuesday morning visited vaccination sites in Johannesburg in a bid to ramp up the province’s vaccination drive.

Makhura was joined by Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi and newly elected Johannesburg mayor Jolidee Matongo at Lenasia South Hospital. They were also expected to visit a pop-up vaccination site in Lawley, Lenasia.

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This visit came as the Gauteng health department added more mobile vaccination sites across the province, with health officials expected to administer vaccines on Wednesday at Bara Taxi Rank in Soweto.

The pop-up site will register and vaccinate taxi drivers and commuters who are 35 years and older.

“As part of efforts to take the vaccination programme to communities, the Gauteng provincial government will this week starting from 17 August target areas such as Orange Farm, Lawley, the Kokotela informal settlement and other surrounding communities in the City of Johannesburg,” said the department’s spokesperson, Kwara Kekana.

During his visit last week in Tshwane to monitor new vaccinations, Makhura expressed his concern about the low turnout in the number of eligible people getting vaccinated.

“The last seven days were slow across the province; our numbers haven’t been doing as well as we wanted. We’ve established that men are not going to vaccination sites, 57% of the people vaccinated were women,” he said.

The premier said the provincial health department was worried about the vaccination rate among citizens who are 60 years and older in Johannesburg and Tshwane. He said hesitancy and vaccination conspiracies may be to blame for the slow progress at vaccination sites.

“Just over 50% in the 60 year old age group have been vaccinated, which is not satisfactory because this age group is vulnerable to the virus. We have set up a ward-based war room in Tshwane and the rest of the province which worked with our community health workers to engage with community members.

“Some of their feedback was mainly around hesitancy in the over-60 age group and the conspiracy theories they believed,” Makhura said.

The health department said it continued to work with civil society partners to implement innovative solutions such as the drive-throughs and mobile (pop-up) vaccination sites to ramp up the vaccination programme in Gauteng.

All Gauteng sites also accept walk-ins whether people are registered on the government’s Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) or not.

Those eligible for vaccines were reminded to bring their IDs, driver’s licences or police-signed affidavits to confirm their identity to the vaccination site.

Additional reporting by Asanda Matlhare

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