Western Cape Concerned Over Vaccine Rollout

The Western Cape’s vaccine rollout is not happening as quickly as it can be.

Health authorities say it’s unlikely they’ll be able to complete Phase one of the programme and move on to Phase two before June.

They say this is mainly due to the limited number of vaccines.

Western Cape Head of Health Keith Cloete said, “the likelihood of us having sufficient vaccines to complete Phase 1 and to seriously make a dent in Phase 2 before you get to June is very low at this point in time.”

Over 21, 000 health workers in the Western Cape have been vaccinated so far but the rollout is going slower than the health department would like.

Cloete said, “the vaccine upscale is going slowly because we’re getting drips and drabs for the Johnson & Johnson Sisonke trial. Our plan is to scale up in April, massively depending on the availability of <the> vaccine to complete Phase 1 in April.”

COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations continue to decline but authorities are preparing for the worst come Easter.