Supporting Vaccination while driving through

Johannesburg – Yaseen Theba one of the coordinators at the Houghton Mosque drive-through centre in Johannesburg told Sputnik that it is through community effort that more than 2000 South Africans get vaccinated every Saturday. Theba said during the week close on 1500 people get vaccinated while the country drums up support to achieve its herd immunity.

The centre offers both Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. It stated operating in July and since then it enjoys a good turnout. The centre makes use of volunteers who are made up of paramedics, pharmacists, doctors and data capturers.

Motorists pile up and through into the 5 bays under a donated tent. Theba told Sputnik the idea was to take the vaccine to the people.

“Non of us are protected until we are all protected. We have discussed this with the Gauteng government and the Premiers office is assisting. We make vaccination easy and accessible. We assist with the registration and keep it simple. The premier of Gauteng David Makhura said we must give the people vaccines. Foreigners are welcome,” Theba told Sputnik.

He said they have employed a model that would work for the people. They have a person who registers people online on site and a vaccinator. Theba told Sputnik that the centre responds to home bound calls for the elderly and the disabled.

“We make about 40 calls a day. We have responded to about 600 home bound calls since we started. The centre is closed on Fridays and Sundays,” Theba said.

The centre has seen families drive in and individuals. Most of the people who are seen trickling in have been sent to vaccinate by corporates and employers.

South Africa has 2,805,605 confined cases of the coronavirus, 83,161 fatalities to date and 16,654,409 tests have been conducted in both public and private sectors.