More than 400 people were vaccinated when the Department of Health in Mpumalanga held a vaccination drive at Acornhoek Mall. The premier of Mpumalanga, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, visited the site to monitor the progress and to members of the pubic to vaccinate.

Speaking at the site, the premier said so far 450 000 people have already been vaccinated in the province and that the vaccination process is going smoothly. She said the provincial government is currently taking the vaccination campaigns to the deep rural areas and the turnout on that is very good.

“We have extended that to shops like Clicks, they are also vaccinating, we are monitoring their progress and over and above that we have established various vaccination stations, which include our malls. As you can see here, most people come here for different reasons so as they do hat they also get to vaccinate and that has assisted us quite a lot,” said the premier.

She also informed members of the public that even if they do register for vaccination, they don’t have to wait for the approval. She said they can just show up for vaccination any time because approval might take some time. The premier also added that the vaccination sites, including shops like Clicks also accept walk-ins so the public have ample venues where they can get their vaccination.

The premier said the provincial government is encouraging people to get vaccinated, she said they can approach any of the centres that are available within the province. She added that the provincial government is concerned about the Nkomazi Local Municipality, because there are 33 wards and out of those, 20 are Covid-19 hotspots. She said this means that almost two-thirds of the wards in Nkomazi have a high number of Covid-19 infection rate, she said they will be focusing on the municipality to monitor the situation, to encourage the people to vaccinate in order to eliminate the spread of the virus.

“We just want to appeal to our people to come out and vaccinate, this is their right, and if they just make sure that they get the jabs as soon as they can in order to avert the adverse effects of Covid-19. What is good about the vaccination process is that there are two kinds of vaccines, there is Pfizer, which has to be administered in two doses and Johnson and Johnson, which is a once-off thing” said the premier.

One of the members of the public who got vaccinated on the day was Ms Ryana Mohlala from Buffelshoek, who said she vaccinated because she has seen reports on how the virus is killing people. She said she decided to ignore the myth that the vaccine is killing people. Mohlala said she is following what the president said, that the vaccine will reduce the strength of the virus.

“Even my kids were reluctant about me getting a vaccine, but I didn’t go with that. Even if I die, I won’t have any doubts. I urge people to get vaccinated because when the spread of Covid-19 get reduced, the lockdown levels will go down and ultimately come to an end. That way, things can go back to normal. People should stop misleading others, they should vaccinate,” said Mohlala.

Walter Chiloane from Newline said he was getting his second dose and that he was fine even after his first dose. He also urged people to vaccinate. He said he vaccinated but never got sick so people should vaccinate and stop listening to myths.

“We are not the same. Other people get vaccinated and they have their own diseases. When they vaccinate these diseases get activated hence people a saying vaccines make people sick. I feel okay and I am happy. I will vaccinate regardless of what people say. I mean even my employees gave me a day off so I can get my vaccine,” said Cynthia Sekgobela from Timvhabati.