The Department of Health inspected the Sun City vaccination site on 21 July 2021 and gave its approval for the site to operate until December. The resort, however, aims to complete the programme within two months. "We will have 15 vaccinators on site, who can each vaccinate 50 people per day. We will start with five vaccinators for 200 people for the first three days to iron out any potential glitches and then increase capacity.
"But we don’t anticipate any problems. Sun City is used to hosting events of the size and magnitude, like that of the Nedbank Golf Challenge, for example, so we are confident that the preparations for our vaccination site will be seamless."
The resort vaccination drive will also include an outreach programme to target other locals from the surrounding area, "We want to protect our staff, but it is equally important to us to ensure that people living in our local communities are looked after and are safe."
The resort will be following the government's rollout plan in terms of age groups, and already, more than 1,000 staff members aged 50 year and older, have been identified as vaccine candidates.
Hoppe says that screening and registration would be done in the Convention Centre’s assembly area where 14 people would be served at a time.
"Warrior’s Hall will be used for electronic vaccination data system confirmation and pre-vaccination vitals, while the Superbowl will be used as the vaccination, discharge and observation areas. Medics will be on hand to assist people should they show any sign of an allergic reaction, or to transport them to the nearby hospital."
The venue has been divided to accommodate the different sections, in accordance with capacity regulations, and sufficient storage capacity for the vaccines as provided by the Department of Health.
Vaccinations will begin from Saturday, 24 July.
