Cape Town - Vaccine registration is officially open to all adults, with the announcement that those aged 18 to 34-year-old will be eligible to register and get vaccinated from Friday onwards.
The announcement has been welcomed by Premier Alan Winde who said the province had the capacity to accommodate increased demand.
“I welcome, with excitement, the announcement today that residents in the 18 to 34-year-old age cohort (or 18+) will be eligible to register and get vaccinated from tomorrow onwards. This now means that all adult residents living in the Western Cape will have access to the lifesaving and job-creating vaccines,” Winde said.
He said there had been a decrease in vaccine uptake across the country, attributed to vaccine hesitancy and the need to improve access to vulnerable and remote groups.
“We’ve seen major interest and excitement from this age group, and we look forward to them making use of our vaccination sites. We have the capacity, infrastructure and supplies to manage this increased demand.”
So far, 741 356 vaccines have been administered to those in the over 60 age cohort, 309 587 vaccines have been administered to those in the over 50-59 age cohort and 372 782 vaccines have been administered to those in the over 35-49 age cohort.
Health head Dr Keith Cloete said there are currently 46 395 active infectious cases in the province, and the combined public-private oxygen utilisation is now 78.73 tons/day (104.9% of the maximal production capacity of 75 tons/day) at the Afrox Western Cape plant.
“We are in the peak of the third wave and are starting to see small percent decreases in some of our indicators. Case numbers have started to decrease. Admissions have plateaued with around 320 new admissions each day and deaths have decreased to around 100 deaths daily,” he said.
The numbers of children infected in this wave was also higher than any of the previous waves, he added.
“The risk of being exposed to Covid-19 at gatherings remains very high due to the high number of active cases,” said Cloete.
“Currently, there are 3663 Covid-19 patients in our acute hospitals, 2 003 in public hospitals and 1 660 in private hospitals. This excludes persons under investigation and cases in specialised hospital settings.”
Register by visiting: https://vaccine.enroll.health.gov.za/#/ and WhatsApp the word REGISTER to 0600 123456.
Cape Times