Gauteng plans to inoculate 1.3 million elderly citizens in second phase of Covid-19 vaccinations

The Gauteng health department said it was hoping to vaccinate more than 1.3 million people over the age of 60 during the second phase of the national Covid-19 vaccination plan. 

Speaking on behalf of the provincial health department, Nomsa Mmope said: “We have the capacity to vaccinate 36,200 people per day.”

Mmope said the province has 218 old age homes it was targeting for vaccinations. These house a population of close to 27,000 people. 

“We have 2,445 vaccinators who will target the [remaining] health workers and people in old ages homes,” she said. 

“We have trained 5,000 and continue to train more vaccinators daily,” Mmope said. 

The province has vaccinated more than 127,000 health workers in the first phase and 88,000 were still due to  be vaccinated. 

Gauteng had so far seen 291,000 registrations for vaccination on the online portal system. 

“We have received 10,530 doses and these have been allocated to each district,” Mmope said.  

The province has 29 vaccination sites but hopes to increase the number to 285 as the vaccination rollout continues. 

Retail pharmacy groups Dischem and Clicks will also be used as vaccination sites but will cater mostly for those with medical aid. 

KwaZulu-Natal said it was hoping to have 600 Covid-19 vaccination sites operating in the province by the time they reach phase three of the vaccination plan.

While provincial health departments prepare for the second phase of the vaccination plan on Monday,  KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Nomagugu Simelane said for no the province has 27 operational sites.

“These include hospitals and clinics in all districts,” said Simelane.

In the first phase of the vaccination programme, the province vaccinated about 100,000 health workers. Another 60,000 were yet to be vaccinated and Simelane said they envisaged these would be concluded by the end of the week.

Provincial health MECs on Sunday announced their rollout plans and readiness for the next phase of the vaccination programme. 

Health minister Zweli Mkhize confirmed his confidence that provinces were ready for the next phase of inoculations.