Day 14: Pensioner registration drive kicks off, while Western Cape plans ‘mega sites’

By the end of Tuesday, 1 June, 637,801 people in South Africa had received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. This is an increase of 72,465 from the previous day.

Meanwhile, thousands of community healthcare workers, community development practitioners and civil society volunteers went to pension payout sites across the country to convince pensioners to register for the vaccine and assist them in doing so.

Volunteers are from the SA Medical Research Council, the Red Cross, Unicef, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, and the national Department of Health.

The initiative will run this week and next week in all nine provinces in an effort to register the 3.5 million people in South Africa aged over 60. Read the report by Chris Bateman.

Meanwhile, the chair of South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 vaccines, Barry Schoub, has said the country needs to shift its focus from herd immunity to containment. Read Mia Malan’s report on his reasons here.

On Wednesday, 3 June, the Western Cape predicted that it would have used more than 100,000 of its 124,020 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses by the end of 4 June. 

It expects another delivery of 72,540 doses soon. It is also waiting for 200,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses to be released from the Aspen plant in Gqeherha. 

It aims to vaccinate 70,000 people next week and to open another seven sites in the City of Cape Town, 19 in the Cape Winelands, 19 in the Overberg, 11 on the Garden Route and central Karoo, and 12 on the west coast.

It is also planning “mega vaccination sites” in the City of Cape Town once vaccine supply allows.

Half of all residents aged over 60 have registered in the province. However, Premier Alan Winde expressed his concern “that poorer communities have lower rates of vaccination in comparison to other communities”. 

In the Free State, 5,262 people were vaccinated on Wednesday – the highest number of people the province had vaccinated in one day.

Meanwhile, North West vaccinated 4,009 people and the Northern Cape vaccinated 458 people on that day.

Gauteng had vaccinated 19,545 people by the end of Tuesday.

How to register

Register to be vaccinated during Phase 2 on the Electronic Vaccination Data System https://vaccination.health.gov.za/#/. 

Alternatively, register on WhatsApp by sending “REGISTER” to 0600123456.

Or, register by SMS by dialling *134*832*your ID number#. If you don’t have an ID number, just dial *134*832#. You do not need a smartphone, airtime or data to register by SMS.

If you encounter any issues, call the Covid-19 hotline on 0800 029 999. DM/MC