POLITICAL NEWS - The DA in the Western Cape calls on the national Department of Health to open the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) to allow the next sub-priority group to register on the system.
By allowing people to register ahead of rollout, proper planning can take place and all provinces will have a far better estimation of where qualifying residents are located to ramp up the vaccination drive.
MPP Wendy Philander commented on Monday: “Today, the Western Cape Government launched an additional private Covid-19 vaccination centre at Old Mutual Park, Pinelands. This is set to enable a further escalation of jabs per day in the province.
However, in the last batch of vaccines received from national government, the provincial government received less than planned for, which has a knock-on effect in bringing new sites online and ramping up the vaccine drive for the next phase.
The province, nonetheless, meets it weekly targets and has had to adopt a stop-start approach to accommodate the supply. For example: it initially planned to administer 30 000 jabs per day but have received less than 50 000 for the week ahead.
At this stage, 60 year olds are also still registering, but in opening up the system for the next targeted group, we can overcome the delays and challenges during registration as experienced at the start of phase 2(a).
This further promotes the supply-demand chain which is key to starting an efficient phase 2 (b). I will thus make our urgent request in writing to the National Department of Health.”
The extent and severity of the 3rd wave very much depends on an efficient vaccination drive. As the DA in the Western Cape, we will ensure that clarification of the process is communicated timely to avoid further precious lost time.
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