Press Statement

14 August 2021

VACCINATION MOMENTUM TO INSPIRE THE NATION

It was a week of exciting milestones for the vaccination drive-thru site when our 10 000th citizen was vaccinated this past Thursday.

We’re overwhelmed with excitement to share today’s #VacciNation numbers with the public. THANK YOU Gauteng, “let us not lose pace and let us continue to encourage and inspire those around us to get vaccinated too” said Yaseen Theba, Muslim Association of South Africa.

Numbers are as follows:

• Houghton Masjid: 1214
• Homebound Vaccinations: 31(Included in Houghton Total)
• Maraisburg Outreach Site: 660

This brings the total number of Vaccines administered in  Johannesburg to 1874. Additionally today we pushed over the 2000 vaccination mark as we add the Zwartkops R55 site & thank the volunteers & team who administered 273 vaccines in Tshwane today.

We are inspired with the turn out in Maraisburg today at a community vaccination point with a total of 660 vaccines administered. Not forgetting the 31 Homebound Vaccinations administered today bringing our total operations to an a staggering 2147.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the volunteers across the sites, our doctors, nurses and medics and the teams that make this possible each day.

At the Maraisburg Masjid #VacciNation site the community came out in their numbers. It was a hive of community activity with food stalls set up and a sense of connectedness that made this more than just a space for vaccination, but an opportunity to galvanise as a community! Mobilisation as a collective despite the economic and social pressures brought on by lockdown, today this community came alive. And profits from today’s stalls will be fed back into projects for the community.

We are humbled to have received a visit from Cllr Sibongile Eunice Mgcina today at the #VacciNation drive-thru site in Houghton. She is a Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Health and Social Development in the City of Johannesburg. We even had members of the media, SAPS, JMPD and even Tracker who mobilised respective members and colleagues and came to get their vaccinations across our sites today.

We are grateful for the live coverage and the engagement from the media as we continue to educate, create awareness and demystify some of the thinking around getting vaccinated. Together we will overcome. Vaccinating our community, city and province at large is a collective act of citizenship and we will continue to push as hard as we can to ensure we do all we can.

“We cannot lose momentum in our quest to vaccinate the nation, because this is now a collective responsibility.” An important call to action from Chairman of the Muslim Association of South Africa: Yaseen Theba who is responsible for the #VacciNation drive-thru site at the Houghton Masjid that launched almost three weeks ago.

To the thousands upon thousands of citizens who have trusted us to give them their jab, we thank you.

#GPVacciNation #UbuntuInAction

For further information : visit www.muslim.org.za

[END]

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

ARSHAD BODIAT – 072 832 1174

email : media@muslim.org.za