HEALTH and beauty company Clicks said yesterday it had managed to re-open 292 stores in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, with 47 temporarily still shut after last week’s civil unrest.
To date, the group had re-opened 78 stores and 23 vaccination sites in KwaZulu-Natal, and 214 stores and 42 vaccination sites in the rest of the country.
Clicks managing executive Vikash Singh said: “Clicks is making good progress in terms of re-opening stores and restoring essential services to areas in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng which were impacted by the recent unrest.
“Our operations and support teams have been working tirelessly to clean and re-stock looted and damaged stores. We are re-establishing our supply chain of life-saving medicines and essential goods as we know our customers rely on us for their healthcare needs and medication.”
Singh said Clicks had bought in supplies and emergency medicines from other regions where necessary.
Existing chronic medication scripts from 35 of the worst-affected stores had been redirected to the closest Clicks buddy dispensary. Customers could visit https://clicks.co.za/store-updates for the affected stores and their buddy dispensaries, it said, or call Clicks Customer Service Centre on 0860 254 257.
Clicks also said it had administered 162 604 vaccinations at 283 vaccination sites nationwide and was on track to open 17 more vaccination sites across the country in the next few weeks as it continued its drive to ultimately reach a target of 602 vaccination sites.
Vaccination registrations on the government’s Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) were now open to anyone over the age of 35. Only once all scheduled patients have received their vaccination will unscheduled walk-in patients be accommodated, with the most vulnerable – those over the age of 50 – receiving priority, said Singh.
“Walk-ins are managed based on stock availability and capacity,” he says. “I encourage all eligible individuals to register and get vaccinated as this is the only way that we will mitigate the impact of the pandemic.”
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