10 Mar 2021

The greater Selebi Phikwe regional health management team plans to vaccinate 11 500 frontline workers in the first phase of the vaccine rollout, coordinator, Mr Mpaphi Mbulawa has revealed.  

Mr Mbulawa said the region was ready for the immediate rollout of the vaccine.

Amongst the first to be inoculated will be health workers, members of Botswana Defence Force and Botswana Police Service who were about 11 500, according to Mr Mbulawa.

He said if the region received vaccines lower than 11 500,  it would revise the proposed rollout.

However, the coordinator highlighted that health workers would be prioritised in the rollout.

The coordinator also said he had been requested to be on guard in case the vaccine was released earlier than anticipated.

The region has sent a team of 10 health professionals of various specialties to a two-day training session in Palapye where a final rollout plan would be hatched.

In phase one, Mr Mbulawa said the teams would be tapping on available resources although they had other health campaigns to conduct.

He allaid any fears that they would not be ready. “I wouldn’t say we are challenged, and we will make it through.”

He said in phase one the district would need 15 vehicles for seven teams in the Bobonong cluster, five teams in Selebi Phikwe cluster and five teams in the Mmadinare cluster. For the first phase, he said Bobonong would have five vaccination sites, nine for Selebi Phikwe and nine for Mmadinare.

In Selebi Phikwe, BDF and BCL have pledged to offer personnel and resources to augment the vaccine rollout efforts, said Mr Mbulawa.

He said the teams would not be stationary at the allocated sites, but would be available to help others when the need arose.

The region, with one district hospital in Selebi Phikwe and two primary hospitals at Bobonong and Mmadinare, has a population of 126 000.

Mr Mbulawa said in phase two and three, the rollout plan was likely to vary since frontline workers were easier to locate.   

Meanwhile, the Greater Selebi Phikwe update showed a total of 3 172 cases of which 84 were new, 808 active, 2 336 recoveries, four repatriated and 24 deaths.ENDS