Pretoria - Members of the Vodacom Blue Bulls rugby team yesterday received their Covid-19 vaccines at the old Tshwane council chamber in Lyttelton before their tour overseas.
The players and staff were welcomed by MMC for Health Sakkie du Plooy yesterday. The city’s premier rugby side will be leaving to compete in the UK.
The players, who arrived in the afternoon, received lots of love, encouragement and words of support from fans who could not have picked a better day to go and receive their vaccines at the Centurion site.
A proud Du Plooy said this would send a message to the rest of Tshwane that “champions do vaccinate”, and hopefully encourage hesitant residents to come forward and take their jabs to protect themselves and the people they love around them.
He said: “We know now that the Blue Bulls are on a high, and they are performing very well, which makes us very proud in the City of Tshwane.
“I’m particularly very proud of them because they contacted me and said they wanted to come and vaccinate. You know there are a lot of people out there who are hesitant and we hope the message that will go out is that champions do vaccinate.
“It’s the right thing to do, and that is the message we hope will go out. It’s a winning thing and it also shows selflessness because if they are always among people, and if they are vaccinated, they are unlikely to be ill from Covid-19.”
Scrumhalf Johan Mulder said despite the fact that they were required to take the vaccine before going to compete internationally, vaccinating was a responsible thing to do to assist in the fight against the spread of the virus.
He said: “It’s important to take the vaccine if we want to go back to our normal lives because everyone would have done their part to make our land a safer place for everyone who lives in it.”
Outside centre player Lionel Mapoe said he was a bit nervous about the needle but he knew the vaccine was going to assist against the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I do hope this sends a positive message to young people to go and get a vaccine to protect themselves for the greater good of returning back to our normal lives.
“It’s an extra layer of protection to keep ourselves safe.”
Pretoria News