Free State Health Department spokesperson, Mondli Mvambi, says Pelonomi aims to vaccinate between 750 and 1500 people over the age of 60 this week. He cautions there is limited vaccination stock available per week and people need to be cognisant of this. 

Phase 2 at the large hospital begins as the Free State sees a spike in Covid-19 positive cases, with the province now having the third-highest number of active cases in the country at 7093. Mvambi says it appears people in the province are not taking the recommended precautions seriously at this stage and complacency has set in.

“Our worry is that our people are seemingly not taking the non-pharmaceutical interventions seriously. The sad reality is that once you are infected with Covid-19, especially the new unknown variants, the reality is that people die suddenly. The best thing to do is to stay safe”.

Universitas Academic Hospital, on the other end, was reportedly vaccinating the elderly – some from local old age homes - on an on-and-off basis last week, even amidst the shutdown, this is in part due to its location which is further away from the townships of Bloemfontein where the unrest was centered. Mvambi says Universitas will ramp up the vaccination pace this week as well.

According to the department, there are 92 vaccination sites in the province, including Bongani, Albert Nzula and Fezi Ngubentombi Provincial Hospitals, amongst others. The Free State wants to vaccinate more than 200,000 people by the end of phase two, despite only 60 000 people over 60-years-old who had registered thus far.

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