16 Nov 2022

Letlhakeng sub-district council has come up with a bold house-to-house integrated immunisation campaign that will see thousands of residents across the authority receive critical jabs from home, the sub-council chairperson Mr Meshack Tshenyego told councillors during its meeting this week.

Notably, the campaign will bring urgent COVID-19 shots to residents who have not accessed the life-saving inoculation.

As with many authorities across the country, Letlhakeng has large pockets of communities who for one reason or the other remain unimmunised, or only partly immunised, despite availability of COVID-19 vaccines in clinics and hospitals.

By putting its vaccination efforts on wheels and taking shots directly to patients’ homes, the council would effectively break down barriers that may be preventing people from accessing it, namely lack of transportation, disability, and hesitancy, and thereby attain community immunity..

“The campaign, dubbed Ntlo le Ntlwana will improve the uptake of COVID-19 boosters and primary doses. Its aim is to protect Batswana against the severe effects of COVID-19,” said Mr Tshenyego.

He said of its 57758 people only 34 085 had received the COVID 19 shot, with the majority having taken the only primary one.

“Only 9 777 have received their first booster, and as few as 137 their second,” he said.

Mr Tshenyego said the door-to-door effort would also improve the under-5 vaccine programme, which was disrupted by supply chain challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Polio, measles and rotavirus vaccines will also administered during this campaign as teams move from house to house, ” he said.

The campaign would target, in particular, the villages of Letlhakeng, Salajwe, Khudumelapye, Moshaweng and Sorilatholo, said the sub-council chair.

Mr Tshenyego asked councillors to encourage their able-bodied electorate to visit nearest health facilities for their vaccinations.

With regard to the recent nationwide outbreak of diarrhoea, he said the district had by and large been spared, registering only with 672 cases from August to October.

Sadly, two children died. As part of mitigating strategies, health education on the importance of hand washing and the use of ORS and zinc for children with diarrhoea continued, he said. ENDS