GrandWest Casino and Entertainment World became the first approved hospitality and leisure industry in the Western Cape to have a COVID-19 vaccination site.
According to reports, the Sun International-owned complex, along with its Sun City and Wild Coast Sun resorts, are the industry’s first to be inspected and approved by the Department of Health to begin administering vaccinations.
The site will officially open its doors on Monday, August 16, at GrandWest’s Market Hall, and will run between 9am and 3pm every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the first week of October.
Vaccination programme
In the first week, the site aims to administer around 250 Pfizer vaccinations per day, a portion of the daily vaccines will be reserved for GrandWest staff until they have all been immunised. The remaining daily shots will be made available to the public.
GrandWest’s General Manager, Mervyn Naidoo, indicated that the site hopes to administer approximately 8 000 vaccines over the next six to seven weeks, after which time they will assess the continued need for the site.
“We initially looked into the feasibility of offering vaccines to our staff, their families and our concessionaires, but we have a strong relationship with our local communities so we wanted to look after them too. By partnering with the Department of Health we now have the capability to offer vaccines to a far greater number of people,” Naidoo said.
Naidoo added that although this might be the first for the hospitality and leisure industry, they hope that it will soon be overtaken by many more.
“Our industry has been particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and if we don’t reach critical mass with the vaccination rollout, thousands of jobs could be lost,” Naidoo added.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the vaccination, people should have valid identity documents and they should be registered on the national EVDS website. In line with the government rollout of vaccines, the site will be open to anyone aged 35 and over, and to 18+ year-olds from September 1.
Visitors can also access the site from the front entrance to GrandWest, or from the back Welcome Centre at the Grand Arena entrance.
Picture: Cape{town} etc gallery
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