{"id":476236,"date":"2021-03-16T12:38:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T10:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=476236"},"modified":"2021-03-16T12:38:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T10:38:37","slug":"western-cape-sets-aside-over-r900-million-to-prepare-for-the-third-covid-19-wave-and-to-buy-its-own-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/476236\/western-cape-sets-aside-over-r900-million-to-prepare-for-the-third-covid-19-wave-and-to-buy-its-own-vaccines\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Cape sets aside over R900 million to prepare for the third Covid-19 wave &#8211; and to buy its own vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Western Cape provincial government says that it has mobilised a R2.17 billion &#8216;war chest&#8217; to defeat Covid-19 in the province.<\/p>\n<p>Presenting its provincial budget on Tuesday (16 March), the Western Cape government said that this money will be allocated to a number areas, including the preparation for a third Covid-19 wave and the procurement of its own vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>The money will be allocated as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>R325.6 million<\/strong> for the rolling out of up to 5.1 million vaccinations in the Western Cape;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>R75 million<\/strong>\u00a0to independently procure up to 500,000 single-shot vaccines for the Western Cape;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>R20 million<\/strong>\u00a0for communicating the benefits of being vaccinated in the Western Cape;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>R832 million<\/strong> to respond to a possible third wave, which will be spent on rapidly expanding testing, providing personal protective equipment, and on ensuring sufficient supply of oxygen and critical care capacity in the Western Cape.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, the province said that it is facing a number of additional &#8216;unprecedented&#8217; and &#8216;uncertain issues&#8217; which will have major cost implications. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is uncertain when the province will receive more vaccines from national government;<\/li>\n<li>It is uncertain how many vaccines we will receive from national government;<\/li>\n<li>It is uncertain whether the province will receive single-shot or double-shot vaccines;<\/li>\n<li>It is uncertain which vaccines will be approved by the regulator.<\/li>\n<li>The location and the magnitude of a possible third wave in the Western Cape.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;So, to ensure that we remain sufficiently agile and flexible, we have ring-fenced a further R800 million in the provincial reserves to support the fight against Covid-19 in the Western Cape.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It said that this would be utilised for a range of needs including the rollout and procurement of vaccines, as well as to respond to additional costs arising from the fight against Covid-19 in the province.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have also allocated an additional R116 million, in this financial year, to fund the cost of the second wave and to jump-start the rollout of vaccinations,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have, in the end, matched a R1.08 billion contribution from national government, with a R1.09 billion contribution from provincial government, to mobilise a R2.17 billion \u201cwar chest\u201d to defeat Covid-19 in the Western Cape.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the end, when it comes to the struggle between the virus, and the vaccine, the vaccine will win, because humankind has never been better prepared to defeat a pandemic threatening the future of the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/475696\/south-africa-faces-fragile-recovery-as-a-third-covid-19-wave-is-expected-to-hit-in-coming-weeks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">South Africa faces fragile recovery as a third Covid-19 wave is expected to hit in coming weeks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Western Cape provincial government says that it has mobilised a R2.17 billion &#8216;war chest&#8217; to defeat Covid-19 in the province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":462576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-476236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476236"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476284,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476236\/revisions\/476284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}