By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@AFP.
The Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has followed through on his pledge in January and was vaccinated in the Western Cape today, where Phase 2 of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out had started.
At the start of the year in January, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation had expressed its support for Covid-19 vaccines.
At the time the archbishop pledged to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as soon as one became available to him.
On Monday, where the Western Cape government began with its vaccine roll-out of the Pfizer jab, 89-year-old Tutu and wife, Leah Tutu, were among the first in the province to get vaccinated at Brooklyn Chest Hospital.
Premier Alan Winde who was at the hospital to join those who have registered for their vaccine in the Milnerton district, thanked Tutu for following through on his pledge.
“Thank you to our beloved Arch who is once again leading from the front.”
At the time of his pledge, Tutu said: “Vaccines have eradicated terrible diseases such as smallpox, and we are close to using them to make others, such as polio and measles, history.
“Yet many people are scared or wary of this simple, safe and effective way of protecting people against infectious diseases before they even come into contact with them. There is nothing to fear.”
Tutu said the more people who were vaccinated against Covid-19, the more everyone was protected against the disease.
Meanwhile Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, visited the Munsieville Centre for Aged, in Krugersdorp, Gauteng as part of the launch of phase two of government’s vaccination programme.
Mkhize has encouraged the elderly to register for vaccination and said he’s impressed with the vaccine rollout systems put in place on Monday.
“The co-morbidities are highest with people that are 60 and above, the next risky category is over 40 so if we target the 60 year old, then we are reducing the risk of sever infection, of death, of ICU. We will go to old age homes but we also have outreach programmes, there are many people to townships and villages who are not found in old age homes. There is collaboration with SASSA so we know how to target them” he said.
He stated this week there are 87 sites nationally but by the end of the week, this number should increase to 200.
Sites will increase as vaccines come into the country.
Elsewhere the Phase 2 Covid-19 vaccination process has kicked off smoothly in the Tshwane region with around 4 000 elderly residents likely to be vaccinated by the end of this week. More than 80 old age homes have been earmarked for this phase. Traditional healers will also be accommodated for vaccination.
Tshwane chairperson for the vaccination programme, Modise Makutu, say although they have set targets, the numbers are seemingly growing.
“In Tshwane we are targeting 700 traditional healers with 51 registered. With regard to funeral parlours, over 2 000 is our target no indication as yet how many have registered. We were targeting 3 000 but the numbers have grown because we’ve seen people registering up to 4 000,” says Makutu.
South Africa on Sunday recorded 2 585 new COVID-19 cases after 27 543 tests were conducted, representing a 9.4% positivity rate.
Globally, there have been 162 177 376 confirmed global cases of COVID-19, including 3 364 178 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO).