Councillors called on to assist vaccination drive

WITH nearly 3 000 Covid-19 reinfections in the Western Cape, Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz has called on municipal councillors to join their neighbourhood watches and community policing forums (CPFs) for door-to-door engagements to encourage those eligible to be vaccinated to register on the national registration portal.

Councillors, neighbourhood watch and CPF members were encouraged to undertake these campaigns in their neighbourhoods in a bid to create awareness of the vaccine’s safety and to comply with Covid-19 protocols while doing so.

This comes as the province is gearing up to kickstart Phase 2 of its vaccination programme, inoculating people 60 years and older from May 17.

“Neighbourhood watches and community policing forums are a powerful tool which we can collectively leverage as we build strong, resilient communities. I would like to invite all our members, along with their councillors, to be at the forefront of this battle in the war against Covid-19,” said Fritz.

“Let’s take this message of hope to our people. The vaccine is safe. The vaccine is effective. Nobody can force anybody to do anything, but let’s encourage eligible citizens to register and get the jab.”

Premier Alan Winde will be heading to the Cape Winelands District to encourage seniors to get vaccinated as part of the #LetsDoThis vaccination campaign. Winde is expected to visit the Stellcare Centre in Stellenbosch today followed by door-to-door home visits in Cloetesville.

As at Friday, May 7, 189 529 seniors were registered on the Electronic Vaccination Data System in the Western Cape.

“Depending on vaccine supply by the national department, the beginning of Phase 2 is scheduled to start on May 17, 2021, focusing on those over 60 years of age and will overlap with the mop-up of healthcare workers who have not been vaccinated as part of the Sisonke Programme. In addition, we will transition from one age band to the next once a significant proportion of the target population in the current age band, approximately 70%, has been vaccinated,” said Winde yesterday.

The province hopes to vaccinate a total of 5 076 130 people.

“While we move towards Phase 2, it is important to note that Phase 1 is still under way. To date, 68 222 of the 90 840 doses for healthcare workers have been administered. It is anticipated that we will cover more than 60% of healthcare workers with the limited doses being received via the Sisonke Programme.”

About 2 995 people have been reinfected with Covid-19, according to the provincial Covid-19 Dashboard.

As of 1pm yesterday, the province reported 2 326 active cases of the virus, 288 363 total cases, and 274 304 recoveries.

To date, 11 649 people in the Western Cape have succumbed to the virus.