- The Western Cape is experiencing a shortage of vaccines.
- For the second week, the province is struggling to meet the demand for vaccinations.
- A new shipment of vaccines is expected later this week.
The growing demand for vaccines has put the Western Cape supply under strain for a second week, as health officials wait for further consignments to be assigned to the province.
Last week, the provincial health department cautioned residents that the supply of vaccines could throttle the number of doses being administered. The province said it faced a higher demand for vaccines following the addition of new age groups to the vaccination programme.
"We have seen enormous excitement and eagerness for people to get vaccinated. We appreciate the uptake of registration and vaccination. We have seen, as new age bands are added, that this causes excitement and increased demand for vaccination, which is a positive sign," the department previously said in a statement.
As of Friday, there were about 90 000 vaccine doses in the province, said Western Cape health department spokesperson Mark van der Heever.
"The demand currently exceeds our vaccine supply, but our teams are managing by shifting between sites (where the demand is less to where it is bigger)," Van der Heever said.
South Africa recently received a large consignment of the Pfizer vaccine, which is expected to take the country out of its supply constraints.
On Sunday, acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi welcomed a consignment of 2.8 million Pfizer vaccine doses at the OR Tambo International Airport. The vaccine doses were donated by the US.
The next batch of 5.6 million doses is expected to arrive on Tuesday.
"We… are in consultation with (the national health department) to receive our next consignment, which will be this week, and how much it will be," added Van der Heever.
The province's current vaccination target is 150 000 doses a week, but this is hampered by supply.
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