The VWSA vaccination centre, which was set up at the VW People Pavilion near the plant in Kariega, began administering the Pfizer vaccines to VWSA employees on 2 August. In its first week, the centre vaccinated 426 employees, with plans to vaccinate 150 employees a day thereafter.

The process to establish this vaccination centre started a few months ago, with the centre being approved and accredited by the Department of Health as a workplace vaccination site. The centre is run by four professional nurses, some of whom are contract staff and some from the company’s Wellness Centre, as well as two administrators.

At the current pace and envisaged planning, it would take the vaccination centre approximately 16 working days to vaccinate all willing employees who have not yet received both doses of the vaccine, after which the company plans to expand the vaccination programme to VWSA’s on-site service providers and then the loved ones living in the same household as VWSA employees.

The vaccination centre functions separately from the COVID-19 testing facility, which was set up by VWSA last year and which continues to provide free drive-through testing for employees in Kariega. By the end of the first week of August, the facility had performed more than 6 800 tests since its inception.