CTICC Vaccination Centre of Hope closes as numbers dwindle

AFTER serving as a world-class field hospital amid the Covid-19 waves, the province’s first mass vaccination site, the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) Vaccination Centre of Hope, will close its doors, as it has seen fewer people presenting themselves for vaccination.

The facility was a public-private partnership between the province, the City, Discovery Health and the CTICC. Opened on July 7 this year, the site will be operational until today. Staff who played a pivotal role in its success were thanked for their efforts during a decommissioning ceremony yesterday, marking its formal closure. About 300 staff assisted at the site.

Over 136 000 people have been vaccinated there, representing the largest number of people vaccinated at a single site in the Western Cape, Provinvial Health Department chief operating officer, Dr Saadiq Kariem said.

The site started seeing a decline in people presenting themselves for vaccination a few months ago. “As a result of that decline, we obviously had to make the decision to decommission this facility, and what we’ve done is begin pivoting our strategy towards mobile and outreach vaccination,” Kariem said.

The decline comes as just over 49% of the population eligible for vaccination in the province have received at least one dose. Kariem said all vaccination sites, between 190 and 200 across the province, were seeing fewer people getting vaccinated. Health Department head Dr Keith Cloete said: “Vaccination has changed a story of despair and anxiety around Covid-19 to a story of hope and normality returning. That is the power of the vaccines.”

CTICC Vaccination Centre of Hope manager, Leatitia Saville said the site was not only for vaccinations, but also ran outreach initiatives.

CTICC general manager Tracy Mkhize said 96% of CTICC staff were vaccinated at there. “Speaking from the hospitality industry, it was encouraging to know that we had people that were employed here as volunteers from the hospitality industry that lost their jobs at the time, and that brought hope. It was not just for people to get vaccinated, but it brought hope to people who lost their jobs and that can really be appreciated,” Mkhize said.