Covid-19 vaccine: More doses of Pfizer vaccine for WC

The Western Cape Government has received confirmation from the National Department of Health that it will receive 191 880 doses of the Covid-19 Pfizer this week, to be used over 2 weeks.

“We have also so far received 26 400 doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for educators which began yesterday. The weekly supply pipeline of J&J is also expected to be confirmed over the coming week,” Premier Alan Winde said on Thursday.

“Our vaccine rollout plan has been impacted by a constrained vaccine supply and will need to be adjusted. But with the additional tranche, I believe that we will soon get our vaccine programme back on track,” he said.

The Western Cape is taking an age-based approach to the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, which will vary at the suburb level.

“I again call for the EVDS system to allow registrations of those aged 50 to 59 as soon as possible.  To date, we have received a total of 294 840 vaccines, of which 278 332 have already been administered as at 23 June,” he said.

He said the Western Cape had 218 active vaccine sites in the private sector, metro and rural communities and the province was now ready to scale up.

“Our vaccine rollout programme has been linked to the number of vaccines available in the province. The purpose of this is to prevent a stop/start approach to our vaccine rollout since we began on 17 May,” Winde said.

He said the province had cumulatively brought 218 Covid-19 vaccine sites online including: 

* 65 public active sites in the metro;

* 112 public active sites in rural communities; and

* 41 private active sites.

“With the additional vaccine supply en route, we are prepared to scale up the number of vaccine sites further to ensure that each resident has a site that is conveniently located and near to where they stay,” Winde said.

He added that the province was brining three mass vaccination sites online in the Metro, Cape Flats and Bellville areas.

“In our commitment to rolling out a successful vaccine programme, we have been hard at work identifying and establishing mass vaccination sites. These sites will help us to rapidly increase the number of vaccines administered,” he said.

The three sites include:

• The use of the CTICC which is made possible through a partnership with the City of Cape Town and Discovery
• The Metropolitan Health or Momentum mass site at the Parc Du Cap premises in Bellville opened on 4 June 2021. This site will serve as a private sector site primarily and we will partner with this site to ensure access for uninsured clients; and
• Assessments have been carried out for a site in the Cape Flats. This site will likely be brought online within a month of the launch of the CTICC.