“A total of 9,958 people were vaccinated, bringing the number of vaccinated people to 354,225 in the Province, of which 192,224 have been fully vaccinated.”
JUST under 10,000 people in the Northern Cape received their Covid-19 vaccinations during the first Vooma Vaccination Weekend from October 1 to 3.
Northern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Lulu Mxekezo said on Monday that 54 vaccination sites were open in the Province this past weekend as part of the presidential campaign to encourage more people to vaccinate.
“This initiative was aimed at accommodating those working people who cannot get time to visit the sites. The social mobilisation team worked hard to ensure that these sites were busy during operational hours,” said Mxekezo.
She said that 4,719 vaccine doses were administered on Friday, while 3,057 people were vaccinated on Saturday and 2,182 doses were administered on Sunday.
“A total of 9,958 people were vaccinated, bringing the number of vaccinated people to 354,225 in the Province, of which 192,224 have been fully vaccinated.”
Mxekezo added that they aimed to have 547,000 people fully vaccinated by December.
“This would not have been possible without the collaboration and assistance of other government departments as well as private organisations and non-governmental organisation partners. The department is grateful to all those who assisted in any way to ensure that the vaccination uptake increased.”
She appealed to members of the public to vaccinate before the festive season to prevent a “devastating” fourth wave, which some experts have predicted for later this year if the majority of the population is not vaccinated.
“We appeal to all those eligible to visit their nearest vaccination sites with their identity document or passport or asylum seekers’ documents as soon as possible.
“We should also all continue with non-pharmaceutical interventions like social masking, regular handwashing and social distancing, even after vaccination,” Mxekezo concluded.
The national Department of Health meanwhile announced an additional 87 people testing positive for Covid-19 in the Northern Cape in the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total to 91,094 cases in the Province.
The Frances Baard and John Taolo Gaetsewe districts recorded the highest number of new cases with 25 and 24 respectively, followed by the Namakwa District with 18 new cases, Pixley ka Seme with 11 cases and ZF Mgcawu with nine cases.
The number of total active cases is 5,906 while the total number of Covid-19-related deaths is 2,192.
The average recovery rate in the Province is 91 percent.
It was stated that 42 percent of the adult population has received either the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or at least one shot of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine, with 23 percent of the population having been fully vaccinated.
