Western Cape is racing towards 1 000 000 vaccinations

The Western Cape Department of Health’s scale-up approach of its vaccination programme is starting to reap rewards and is expecting to reach 1 000 000 vaccinations early next week!

To ensure the province could cater for the demand, the Department intentionally identified a certain number of sites to be operational during the first week and gradually increased these as more vaccines became available from National.

Now in its ninth week, the weekly target of 150 000 vaccinations has been exceeded for the second week in a row. As at Friday, for the week, 158 539 vaccinations were administered as part of the National program, bringing the total number of people in the province having received at least one dose of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine, or the one-dose J&J vaccine for the health workers and educators to 960 594.

How did our vaccination programme perform this week (19 – 23 July)

Our vaccinations teams have been working very hard to maintain or exceed the number of vaccines administered daily. Even though there were some public transport disruption, which impacted our ability on Tuesday, the teams managed to make up the deficit by exceeding 150 000 vaccinations for the week.

Vaccinations administered on:

• Monday = 30 753
• Tuesday = 27 124
• Wednesday = 32 597
• Thursday = 34 482
• Friday = 33 583

Total vaccinations for the week = 158 539

Weekend vaccinations now available at sites across the province to improve easy access

The Department is now also able to make vaccinations available on Saturdays at more sites. This Saturday (24 July), 10 sites in certain geographical areas will be open to accommodate those who were unable to get their vaccination during the week. Additional weekend public sites will be considered, on an ongoing basis, as this is dependent on vaccine supply.

On Saturday, 24 July the following sites will be open:

• Goodwood Hall (08h00 – 12h00)
• False Bay Hospital (08h00 – 12h00)
• Saxon Sea Hall, Atlantis (08h00 – 12h00)
• Beaconvale Frail Care Centre, Mitchell’s Plain (08h00 – 12h00)
• Gugulethu CHC (08h00 – 12h00)
• Montagu Clinic (09h00 – 12h00)
• Van der Stell Hall, Stellenbosch (08h30 – 13h00)
• Vredendal Sports Hall (08h30 – 14h00)
• Citrusdal Hospital (09h00 – 12h00)
• TC Newman CDC, Paarl (09h00 – 15h00)

What to expect next week (26 - 30 July)

On Friday, 23 July, we received 93 600 vaccines. These vaccines, along with the remaining doses from last week, will enable us to sustain our capacity at approximately 200 active public health vaccination sites across the province – this excludes the outreaches services.

Priority scheduling

Our priority remains vaccinating those over 60. The EVDS system will continue to allocate available appointment slots in the following order of priority:

• Priority 1 - people 60 years and older requiring their 1st dose of Pfizer vaccine;
• Priority 2 - people 60 years and older requiring their 2nd dose of Pfizer vaccine;
• Priority 3 - people aged 50 -59 years requiring their 1st dose of Pfizer vaccine;
• Priority 4 – people aged 35-49 years requiring their 1st dose of Pfizer vaccine.

We ask citizens eligible for vaccination to take up this opportunity to be vaccinated as the vaccine offers great protection against severe illness and death.

Additional weekend public sites will be considered, on an ongoing basis, as this is dependent on vaccine supply.