NO VACCINATION SITES AT ENTRY POINTS – HEALTH

MBABANE – “There will be no vaccination sites at entry points.”

The above was said by Ministry of Health Principal Secretary (PS), Dr Simon Zwane, in an interview yesterday. Dr Zwane said there had been assumptions from some members of the public that the entry points in the country would have vaccination centres, yet this would not be the case for now. “To cross the border, you need to be fully vaccinated. There will be no vaccination sites at any entry point, that would be an expense to the government,” said Dr Zwane. He further said people needed to take advantage of the vaccinations sites around town’s and government hospitals.

In addition to that, he said the available vaccines required two doses for one to be fully vaccinated. “We have two vaccines currently, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca. These are available in two doses, so there is no way they could be made available at the borders,” said Dr Zwane. This clarification comes after the Prime Minister, Cleopas Sipho Dlamini, announced on Tuesday that travellers could now produce proof of full vaccination for COVID-19 or a negative PCR test of not more than 72 hours at the country’s borders.

Travellers

The PM further said this would be effective immediately, further stating that fully vaccinated travellers entering and leaving the country would no longer need a PCR test. Government emphasised that for now, when they said fully vaccinated, they meant complete doses of a vaccine. Meanwhile, Dr Zwane cleared the confusion between a vaccination card and vaccination certificate. He said the two documents were totally different. The PS said a vaccination certificate was the one required at entry points and a vaccination card was the one obtained on site when vaccinating. “We are still making means to make accessing the vaccination certificate easier because we have relied on technological means for now,” he said. For one to access the vaccination certificate, they can log onto their email address and retrieve the certificate for printing. The PS said if both methods failed or were inaccessible to people, especially the elderly, they could visit their nearest health centre.

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