Covid-19 vaccine site at Sun City a first for tourism, hospitality

Violet Maleke, events co-ordinator at Sun City, participates in a vaccination dry run. Vaccinations at Sun City will begin this Saturday. Picture: Supplied

Violet Maleke, events co-ordinator at Sun City, participates in a vaccination dry run. Vaccinations at Sun City will begin this Saturday. Picture: Supplied

Published Jul 23, 2021

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Pretoria - South Africa’s first tourism and hospitality industry Covid-19 workplace vaccination site will open at Sun City Resort’s convention centre tomorrow.

It is anticipated that the resort will vaccinate 7 500 people in three phases.

“We’ll start with Sun City staff, service providers and concessionaires, before offering vaccine to their family members, and finally, to all those working at hospitality establishments in the Moses Kotane District,” said Sun City general manager Brett Hoppe.

The resort announced that the vaccination drive would include an outreach programme to target other locals from the surrounding areas.

“We obviously want to protect our staff, but it is equally important to us to ensure that people living in our local communities are looked after and are safe.”

The Sun International resort will follow the government roll-out plan in terms of age groups, and already, more than 1 000 staff aged 50 year and older have been identified as candidates.

Hoppe said Sun City was collecting data on the 35 to 49-year age group, who would be offered the vaccine after July 15.

Those with medical aid would have the cost of the vaccine deducted from their available funds, while the Department of Health will cover the cost for non-members.

The department has inspected the Sun City vaccination site and given it approval to operate until December, but the resort aims to complete the programme within two months.

“We will have 15 vaccinators on site, who can each vaccinate 50 people a day. We will start with five vaccinators for 200 people for the first three days to iron out any potential glitches and then increase capacity.

“Sun City is used to hosting events of the size and magnitude of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, so we are confident that the preparations for our vaccination site will be seamless.”

Hoppe said screening and registration would be done in the Convention Centre’s assembly area where 14 people would be served at a time.

“Warrior’s Hall will be used for electronic vaccination data system confirmation and pre-vaccination vitals, while the Superbowl will be used as the vaccination, discharge and observation areas.

“Medics will be on hand to assist people should they show any sign of an allergic reaction, or to transport them to the nearby hospital,” he said.

Pretoria News

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VaccineCovid-19