13 Apr 2021

Elderly people inoculated with COVISHIELD have been advised to promptly seek medical help should they experience any adverse side effects.

The plea was made by the Jwaneng District Heath Management Team matron, Ms Goitsemang Mothibi when kick starting the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Jwaneng on Monday.

Ms Mothibi said since the vaccine was newly developed, there might be many side effects that were still unknown to the medical world, and said such could only be documented when people reported them.

“Just like it is with any vaccine, different people will react differently.

Some might feel severe side effects while others might not feel anything at all.

So there is no cause for panic,” she said.

She said Jwaneng was given 340 doses of the vaccine, but raised a concern at the low number of elders that they had so far traced.

“We had projected a total of 429 elderly, but so far we have only managed to trace about 270.

So we would like to plead that the message be taken to the elders back home so that they show up voluntarily,” she said.

Ms Mothibi noted that Jwaneng had so far registered a cumulative number of 1 551 COVID-19 positive cases as of April 10 since the first case was diagnosed in August last year.

She said 258 of those cases were still active and in the different isolation centres around town while others were isolating at home.

For her part, Jwaneng township mayor, Ms Olga Ditsie cautioned people on turning against decision-makers in the fight against COVID-19.

She indicated that in this era, some unpopular decisions may have to be taken, but with the interest of the populace at heart.
“In this era, it is not time to hold any grudges.

COVID-19 will affect us in many ways, but the enemy is not those who make decisions, so we should not lose focus on the real enemy, which is the pandemic,” she cautioned.

Jwaneng has opened up a number of sites where the vaccine will be administered, being Unit 7 Clinic, Unit 3 kgotla, Maokane Clinic, Jwaneng Mine Hospital while there will also be a mobile team that goes house to house to assist elders who cannot go to the sites.

Other sites will reportedly be opened up as time goes on. Ends