Premier Alan Winde says new levels of vigilance is necessary because of rising Covid-19 numbers in die Western Cape, as the province gets ready to scale up the vaccine programme.

The data shows the following:

• The province has over 1000 confirmed COVID-19 admissions across public and private hospitals.
• The ‘R’ or reproductive number stands at approximately 1.4 which means that the number of infections is accelerating rapidly.
• The province is  continuing to see a 20% week-on-week increase in new cases, even off high-base numbers.
• The proportion of COVID-19 tests which are positive has also increased to an average of 16.2% now and was 20.6% on Monday, 14 June.
• There is also an increase in COVID-19 related deaths, up to 13 people per day, on average.

Winde says it is very important that we all protect ourselves and our loved ones during this period of great risk. You can do this by:

• Wearing a clean cloth mask
• Avoiding non-essential gatherings.
• Avoiding the 3Cs of crowded places, confined spaces and close contact.
• Ensuring good ventilation when meeting, and keeping any essential gatherings small, short and outside.
• Washing your hands regularly with soap and water, or by sanitizing.
• Staying home when sick and organizing a test if you have symptoms.
• Protecting those at highest risk of severe COVID-19 illness and death.

Winde says the provincial government is ready to scale-up again when more vaccines arrive, but there is currently a shortage of vaccines.

“This means we have not been able to reach our target of 120 000 vaccinations a week by now. This follows the announcement by the US Food and Drug Association that 60 million doses of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) would be discarded, and the subsequent announcement by SAHPRA that 2 million of the doses from the Aspen Plant in Gqeberha would also be discarded.”

The province will receive a large tranche of Pfizer doses on 24 June, estimated at 140 000 doses.

“This will enable us to ramp up our vaccination programme by the end of June. We are hoping the arrival of more J&J vaccines will also help this scale-up. To date, we have received a total of 245 700 vaccines for Phase 2, of which, we have administered a total of 213 356 vaccines, which is 86.8% of vaccines administered.”

The Premier says they have also exceeded weekly targets each week since the start of Phase 2.

Currently there are 205 active vaccine sites in the Western Cape which include:

• 65 active public sites in the Metro
• 107 active public sector sites in the Rural Districts
• 33 active private sector sites

The Premier says they are on track to roll out mass vaccination sites, including:

• The Momentum mass vaccination site at the Parc Du Cap premises in the Bellville area opened on 4 June 2021 which will serve as a private-sector site. The Provincial Department of Health will partner with this site to cover some uninsured clients.
• A mass vaccination site at the CTICC will be established in the first week of July, in partnership with the City of Cape Town and the private sector.
• A mass vaccination site in the Cape Flats is also being planned, to ensure greater access for all residents in the Metro.

During the President’s Coordinating Council meeting this week, Winde argued that registrations should open for the next phase, namely, for residents aged 50 to 59.

“There is no reason why this shouldn’t happen already, while vaccinations of those over 60 continue. I am worried we are leaving registration to the last minute, and we should rather be getting as many people registered now so that we can have a seamless change to the next phase – without any delays. I will continue to make these arguments in my engagement with the national government because we must ensure we are ready for the next phase as soon as possible.”

In the meantime, Winde has urged all residents over the age of 60 to register for their vaccine.

To register:

• visit https://vaccine.enroll.health.gov.za/#/ or www.westerncape.gov.za
• dial *134*832# and follow the prompts (FREE on all South African Networks)
• WhatsApp the word REGISTER to 0600 123456