25 Mar 2021

Kgalagadi District Council has put in place a COVID-19 vaccine roll-out strategy in line with the national plan. Addressing a virtual full council meeting recently, council chairperson, Mr Hendrick Jacobs said they would set up temporary vaccination sites in schools and police departments in addition to some health facilities in the area.

Mr Jacobs encouraged all councillors to mobilise communities to ensure that the vaccination exercise became a success.

He said the district had so far recorded 974 and 431 cases in Kgalagadi North and South respectively, making a total of 1 405 as well as 19 COVID-19 related deaths in the district.

He regretted the increasing COVID-19 cases, and encouraged people to refrain from interaction and gatherings and adhere to health protocols.

“It is clear that there are more local index cases which spiked cases of local transmission hence the need to intensify compliance and adherence in communities. The pandemic has stretched the already limited resources in the district, therefore, every individual should do their part to avoid contracting the virus,” he said.

To contain local transmission, he said the District Health Management Team had expanded its COVID-19 screening and testing by training health care workers on rapid antigen testing and that all 22 health facilities in the district were testing hence improved turnaround time.

On other issues, he indicated that as a way to boost tourism activities in the district, the Two Rivers border, which is a gateway to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, had been opened for international tourists and that about 200 of them from South Africa had been screened and tested and that none tested positive for COVID-19.

Meanwhile, the roll out, to start at a date yet to be communicated, would be done in three phases, and vaccination, Mr Jacobs said, would be administered by nurses and doctors. ENDS