UCT to provide a Provincial Health vaccine site

Dear colleagues and students

I am delighted to announce that the University of Cape Town (UCT), in partnership with the Western Cape Department of Health, will open a Community Vaccination Centre at our Forest Hill residence complex in Main Road, Mowbray, within the next three to four weeks.

The site will be run by the Provincial Department of Health to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to UCT staff and students who meet the prescribed government eligibility criteria. The site is set up not only for the UCT community: access will be available to members of the broader community who have been invited by the government to receive their vaccinations.

UCT is making this site available to the provincial government as a way of giving back to the local community. We are providing the physical facilities. The provincial government will provide the vaccines as well as all personnel to manage the site, including medical, administrative and security staff members.

The logistics of the vaccination site have been organised so as not to disturb members of the UCT community who are staying at the Forest Hill residence. The site will be open every day during the week.

The vaccination site serves as a reminder of two important facts: first, that UCT belongs to the wider Cape Town community who will benefit from the vaccines to be administered there; and second, that it takes all of us, working together, to reduce the threat of COVID-19 in our community.

Emeritus A/Professor David Coetzee is leading the UCT Joint Implementation Team, comprising Kirshni Naidoo, the Director of Occupational Health & Safety, and Dr Tracey Naledi, Deputy Dean of Health Services in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Please join me in thanking these colleagues, as well as UCT’s Chief Operating Officer, Dr Reno Morar, for their hard work in completing the negotiations with the government for this vaccine centre to open.

We thank colleagues in the Western Cape Government Department of Health, including Dr Saadiq Kariem (Chief: Operations), Dr Kathryn Grammer and the team from the Metro Health Services. Dr Grammer’s leadership and initiative has been a key factor in enabling us to move to the implementation phase of the project, in which UCT is proud to be involved.

Sincerely

Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng
Vice-Chancellor

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements