Khani Mabaso, 17, Zenande Bizana, 17, Olerato Ikaneng, 17, and Usiphile Bizana, 14 received their Covid-19 vaccine last year. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town - As parents begin preparing their children to get back to school in a few weeks, the City is urging parents to get them vaccinated against Covid-19 before schools reopen.
Reminding residents that children between the ages of 12 and 17 are also eligible for a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine, Community Services and Health mayco member Patricia Van der Ross said: “With the new school year just weeks away, now is a good time to get your child vaccinated.
“In fact, it is a good time to ensure that your child’s general vaccinations too are up to date.”
The City is meanwhile introducing vaccination services at four additional sites this week. The NPO, Khethimpilo, will host pop-up vaccination sites on a rotational basis at various community day centres between 9am and 3pm.
These centres are Luvuyo CDC in Khayelitsha on Mondays and Tuesdays; Gordon’s Bay CDC on Wednesdays; Dr Ivan Toms CDC on Thursdays and Town Two CDC in Khayelitsha on Fridays.
Meanwhile, the provincial Health Department has said residents should take advantage of the reopening of vaccination sites and outreaches that were temporarily closed over the festive season.
The department said in a statement that this meant the number of vaccination sites would increase and more outreaches would enable access to vaccination closer to where people live.
In a bid to create vaccine demand among residents, provincial head of health Dr Keith Cloete said: “To date, vaccines appear to still provide strong protection against severe disease from omicron and remain our best defence.”
“We have seen small increases in all age groups and would really like to improve the vaccination coverage, so that we can have 85% of the over 50-year-old cohort fully vaccinated and 65% of the 18 to 49-year-old cohort vaccinated with at least one dose.”
To date the department has administered 4.4 million vaccines and vaccinated 53.2% of the adult population who have received at least one dose.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za