The Democratic Alliance in Limpopo calls on Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba to urgently reveal the province’s vaccine roll-out plan.
Last night the Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that the first 1 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine were expected to arrive in the country on 1 February 2021. He also indicated that after various processes such as quarantine and quality assurance that will take 10 to 14 days, the Department will then be ready to distribute the vaccine to all provinces.
To date MEC Phophi Ramathuba and the Limpopo Department of Health have not offered any semblance of a Covid-19 vaccine roll-out plan. MEC Ramathuba must take the province into her confidence and outline the plan and systems in place to ensure the efficient, transparent and effective roll-out of the vaccine in the province.
The Limpopo Department of Health’s roll-out plan must provide the people of Limpopo with the number of people planned for vaccination in each phase of the roll-out. The plan must outline exactly how many workers in the healthcare sector, essential service workers, people in congregate settings, people older than 60 years, people older than 18 years with co-morbidities and the rest of the population over the age of 18 the province intends to vaccinate.
The province’s roll-out plan further needs to outline the process that will be followed to manage the large number of people being vaccinated and managing the logistics of scheduling the vaccinations. It should also indicate systems put in place to ensure that facilities offering vaccinations and individuals carrying out the vaccinating are accredited and registered. We also need to know exactly where and under which circumstances vaccines will be stored.
It is deeply concerning that we are approximately 3 weeks from the vaccine being made available to the province and not even the Limpopo Legislature Portfolio Committee on Health has been informed of the roll-out plan.
It is imperative that Limpopo’s roll-out plan is made available so that the process is transparent and the people of Limpopo are assured that all processes and systems are ready for this mass vaccination program.
The DA continues to encourage citizens to always wear a mask in public, ensure social distancing at all times and the regular sanitising and washing of hands.