Joy as homeless people get their Covid-19 vaccines

Cape Town – Homeless people, together with organisations working with them, are happy that the provincial Department of Health has started administering Covid-19 vaccines to them.

Brendon Louw, who has been living in the streets for 20 years, said he was glad that he got his jab despite a lot being said about it.

“I was scared before getting the vaccine because a lot was being said about its dangers, but it is harmless and painless,” he said.

He said it was important for people living in the streets to be vaccinated because a lot can happen to them.

Uyanda Hlahatsi said for her the injection was a bit painful because she doesn’t like injections.

She said people were saying that if you get vaccinated you will die, but she hasn’t heard anyone raising a concern.

“I’m glad I got the vaccine and I encourage others to get vaccinated as well when we get this chance because for us it is difficult to register,” said Hlahatsi.

Jean-Ray Knighton, director of U-turn, an organisation that reintegrates homeless people into society, said they were relieved that people who are homeless are being given the opportunity to protect themselves from the pandemic.

“They face hurdles with loss of IDs and at times being turned away from clinics because of their appearance,” he said.

Like with other sectors of society, there is some hesitancy and trepidation among the homeless, Knighton said..

He said there were, however, several people who access services from their Claremont Service Centre who were eager for the vaccine.

Knighton said their staff will help transport them and others to vaccination centres.

He said according to a research report, titled “The Cost of Homelessness in Cape Town”, it was estimated that there are about 14 000 homeless people across the City.

“Since Covid and the job loss caused by lockdown this amount has increased,” he said.

Mould Empower Serve branch manager Ilse Maartens said it was both a relief as well as a complete joy that homeless people were getting vaccinated.

“As a collective, (Homeless Action Coalition, comprising of NGOs as well as street people representatives), we were very concerned with the vaccine process as it did not cater for homeless individuals,” she said.

Maartens said through various platforms they had tried to get the attention of the government, both national and provincial, in order to consider the street people as at risk as many of them do not have IDs or asylum-seeking papers/passports.

She said that during the vaccination drive there were different reactions with some being scared of needles and some being scared of the vaccine.

The provincial Department of Health spokesperson Mark van der Heever said they could not give a total number of undocumented people who have been vaccinated, as each person vaccinated is registered on the database of the vaccination site, and it does not distinguish between whether a person is homeless or not.

He said their teams work with many shelters and organisations and are informed of undocumented people at these shelters.

“We also know of certain areas where people are not linked to a shelter and have thus identified these areas as well, and they are keen to take up the assistance to be vaccinated,” Van der Heever said.

He said there had been no reported adverse events at these vaccination drives.

Weekend Argus