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Athlone Stadium ‘Vaccination Centre of Hope’ to become one of the biggest vaccination sites in Western Cape

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The City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government launched the walk in section of the Athlone Stadium mass site on Monday. This will be followed by the launch of the drive-through component of the site in two weeks’ time. This project is a partnership between the two governments for the benefit of the residents of Cape Town, to enable both insured and uninsured residents’ easy access to vaccinations.

According to a statement released on Monday, at full capacity the site will be able to administer over 4000 vaccines daily through both its walk-in and drive-through sections, making it as big as the CTICC ‘Vaccination Centre of Hope’ and one of the biggest in the Western Cape. Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde said that this demonstrates the province’s commitment to a vaccination programme based on fairness, access and equity.

“The philosophy of fairness and equity underlines the opening of the Athlone Vaccination Centre of Hope at the Athlone Stadium, which will bring a mass vaccination site closer to residents of the Cape Flats, while providing an efficient, well-run service. Every life matters, and so every person must have access to these life-saving vaccines. It doesn’t matter where you live, or what you earn” said Winde.

‘We are very pleased to make one of our major facilities available to the Western Cape Government, who continue to make great progress in in this critical vaccine rollout. This is another example of the great progress that can be made when different spheres of government work together for the benefit of residents. As a fully-vaccinated resident myself, I encourage all residents living in the surrounding areas to please make use of this facility and get the jab as soon as possible’, said Cape Town Executive Mayor Dan Plato.

This walk-through service will have 40 vaccination stations while the drive-through services will have five lanes.

Speaking on VOC’s Breakfast show on Tuesday, Spokesperson for the Western Cape Health Department, Mark Van Der Heever said in the next weeks, motorists will be included with the momentous drive through inoculation.

“The drive through will have five lanes to allow citizens to perform the entire process but all in the comfort of their own vehicles. If both those two service points are up running 4000 people will be vaccinated per day,” explained Van Der Heever.

He added that the vaccination station will be operational for both insured and uninsured residents.

“We wanted to create a vaccination site that will benefit the mostly uninsured population and we thought the stadium would be the most accessible to the Cape Flats,” stated Van Der Heever.

The Athlone Stadium was chosen as it is easily accessible, via all forms of transport, to the broader Klipfontein community and serves a large majority of the uninsured population in the Cape Metro. In addition, the stadium is also very well known to the Cape Town community and resonates with the people of the Cape Flats such as Gugulethu, Nyanga, Heideveld, Hanover Park, Athlone and Manenberg.

According to Van Der Heever the entire process will last 30 minutes.

 

Operational times for the site:

Monday -Friday: 8am – 4pm                 

VOC


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