Picture:- Newly vaccinated Sedgefield Clinic staff are ready to continue their fight against the COVID-19 virus for another 365 days if necessary.
From L-R: Sr Kombrinck, Maggie Prinsloo, Lynette Van Wyk, Sr Dorinda Zondag, Sheila Manyandela, Petro Koen, and in front, Nita Allsopp
by Melanie Baumeister
As the country slowly rolls out the vaccines against Covid19 for health care workers, Sedgefield has not been left behind. As a hotspot for the virus during the second wave it was with great relief that seven of the local clinic workers have been recipients of Johnson & Johnson vaccinations provided by the government.
The first to receive the jab are the high-risk workers and COVID testers. The vaccine is being monitored and the trial rollout will hopefully provide a foolproof blueprint for the next level of recipients to receive the inoculation sooner rather than later.
On 23 March last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that there would be a nationwide lock-down from midnight 26 March, in an attempt to combat the spread of the Corona Virus. At the time this eery new concept of disease control was only set to last 21 days, but of course, this was not to be.
The horrific roller-coaster ride that South Africa, and indeed the world, has been on since then will surely never be forgotten, and though we are currently on one of the more comfortable lock-down levels it is still very important to keep focused on delaying another wave for as long as possible, as the government (hopefully) gets on top of the vaccine rollout.
Senior researcher at CSIR, Dr Ridhwaan Suliman, says that the number of new Covid-19 cases in South Africa is increasing by 2% week-on-week, but this is due to small spikes in specific areas. Thankfully, at the moment the Western Cape is still seeing a very slight decline in numbers.
Looking back on how the last 365 days have affected our family lives, our economy, and of course remembering those who have perished during this pandemic, it would be good to take stock of what is important, and to each do our bit to slow the Corona spread.
