Premier Alan Winde says the province is expected to reach the target of 100 000 first dose Pfizer vaccinations by the end of this week, with scale-up linked to available supplies.

As of 27 May, the Western Cape had received a cumulative total of 124 020 vaccines. By the close of business tomorrow, the province would have used in excess of 100 000 of these vaccines, or at least 80% of the stock that has been available to use.

The difference of what is left, together with a new tranche of vaccines that arrive in the province, totalling 72 540 Pfizer vaccines, will then provide health officials with the pipeline to continue to open more sites in more communities across the province in the coming weeks.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccines have still not been cleared to leave their plant in the Eastern Cape, and this pipeline of over 200 000 vaccines is still unavailable to increase the daily rate significantly.

Logistical and supply chain systems are however in place to scale up to 120 000 vaccinations a week when the supply enables the province to do so.

This week, the Western Cape started to open public vaccination sites in our non-Metro districts. This coincided with many outreach vaccination visits to old age homes across the province. This scale-up will continue next week, with a number of additional vaccination sites planned in the province including:

• 7 sites in the City of Cape Town
• 19 sites in the Cape Winelands
• 19 sites in the Overberg
• 11 sites in the Garden Route and Central Karoo
• 12 sites in the West Coast

The Western Cape is also in advanced planning with our partners in the City of Cape Town and the private sector to open mega-sites in the Metro, which will enable officials to vaccinate even larger numbers of people.

The Western Cape is also making good progress in registering residents over 60 years old, now approaching 50% of all eligible residents.

Premier Winde says he remains concerned that poorer communities have lower rates of vaccination registration in comparison to other communities.

“I again urge all those who can spend just 6 minutes of your time helping register someone over 60.  For our part, we continue to focus communication in areas where there is low registration to create awareness and improve access to the EVDS.”