People living with disabilities are feeling left out in the current set up for the Covid-19 vaccination.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Sunday the 25th of July that people between the ages of 18 and 34 years old will soon vaccinate.
Representative Rosina ‘Baggio’ Mosima says people living with disabilities feel ignored by the government as they have no sense of belonging in the groupings of vaccination.
Mosima says since the inception of categories of people who are supposed to go for vaccination, they have been completely left out.
“In my knowledge I don’t know of anyone of the people living with disabilities who got vaccinated. They say we must go to a clinic at Shongoane 1 or Witpoort Hospital. Initially I heard health MEC say that community home based care people will visit families to register those who want to be vaccinated, however they never said anything regarding people living with disabilities.”, said Mosima.
She also said what she sees now is that a person who lives with disability has to get someone to accompany them to these healthcare facilities.
“I am appealing to the MEC of Health to attend to us so that we know where we stand with regards to vaccination. I also encourage other people across Lephalale, who live with disability to come forward to also share their challenges with getting vaccination”, said Mosima.
Witpoort Hospital Spokesperson Mpho Dinale says people living with disabilities fall within age groups(categories) and there are times when relatives bring them to healthcare facilities or alert community home based care providers, who get information about people living with special needs, who will later be checked for vaccination. Dinale says they don’t force anyone to vaccinate.
“People living with disabilities who wish to vaccinate can also tell their relatives or anyone nearby to alert home community based care people to come to their attention. There are times we go out for our outreach programs and whenever we are notified about a person who lives with disability who needs vaccination, we will send a nurse to the person so that they are vaccinated”, concluded Dinale.