24 Mar 2021

The coordinator of the District Heath Management Team (DHMT) for the Southern District, Ms Josephine Mosimanewakgosi says her region will soon start consultations with stakeholders on the roll-out plan of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Ms Mosimanewakgosi said their plan was to consult bogosi in Kanye before going to other wards in villages around the area.

With rumours that some frontline workers were developing cold feet in taking the jab, Ms Mosimanewakgosi said in her area frontline workers had been calling her office enquiring on when the roll-out would begin.

“Looking at the rate in which frontline workers have been calling our office, they are eager to get vaccinated.

We are not anticipating any resistance when the roll-out begins,” she said.

Ms Mosimanewakgosi also indicated that preparations for the roll-out in her area were going well, but said they could not be certain of the date of the roll-out as logistics were still being worked out.

“The vaccine that the country has received so far is only a small percentage of what is needed, so there might be a need to wait for more batches considering that the vaccine is taken in two doses.

This will help the country to cover everyone in the first phase category,” she said.

Ms Mosimanewakgosi also said once all the logistics were worked out, communication would be made with the public.

She said all DHMT regions across the country were laying out the groundwork for the roll-out, including the training of personnel.

“At the moment the Southern District Council is on and we are expecting to brief councillors anytime this week.

This will also be part of community consultations because councillors will help spread the message,” she said.

Ms Mosimanewakgosi also said the full council session would come in handy looking at the fact that DHMT could not go around addressing kgotla meetings.

She said when the roll-out begins, they would vaccinate frontline workers at their places of work while the elderly would be vaccinated at their dikgotla.

She said they woud use a public address system to alert them prior to the start of the vaccination campaign, and that they would disperse different teams during the vaccination campaign.

The southern region comprises of four DHMT’s namely Kanye, Moshupa, Jwaneng and Mabutsane.

Ms Mosimanewakgosi said that they were targeting to vaccinate 54 000 people in Kanye who were 18 years and above.

She said the target for Jwaneng was 21 931 and Moshupa and Mabutsane 14 541 and 4 851 respectively, bringing the total for the region to over 95 000. ENDS