Aged 50 to 59? Alan Winde wants you to be able to register for the Covid-19 vaccine

Western Cape premier Alan Winde says it's time for the government to open up Covid-19 vaccine registrations for residents aged 50 to 59. 

Winde said there's no reason this shouldn’t happen while vaccinations of citizens 60 and older continue under the second phase of the Covid-19 vaccine programme.

The second phase started in May and is set to wrap up in October. The government aims to vaccinate 5.5 million citizens aged 60 and older by the end of June. 

Winde said he made the point during the president’s co-ordinating council meeting this week and will take the matter further with the national government.

“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,” said Winde. 

“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.”

He also urged residents in the province, who are over the age of 60, to register.  

“We have now exceeded 50% of all eligible residents in this age group, but we need to get close to 70% if we are to get herd immunity in the future,” said Winde. 

More vaccines for Western Cape

Winde said the province will receive an estimated 140,000 Pfizer doses on June 24. 

He said the delivery would enable the province to ramp up its vaccination programme by the end of June, with the arrival of more Johnson & Johnson vaccines also expected to help the vaccination process scale up. 

“To date we have received a total of 245,700 vaccines for phase 2, of which we have administered 213,356, which is 86.8% of vaccines administered,” said Winde.

“We can also reach a minimum of 120,000 vaccinations a week or 24,000 a day, and can scale up further to 150,000 a week or 30,000 vaccines a day, should we receive additional vaccines.”