Cape Town – Authorities in the Western Cape plan to reach even more residents with its Red Dot taxi service.
The service, with a fleet of 135 minibus taxis and transports residents to COVID-19 vaccine sites, is currently deployed at districts across the province.
Officials say it would expand even further depending on the demand.
Premier Alan Winde, Health Minister NomaFrench Mbombo and Transport MEC Daylin Mitchell were in Atlantis on Monday to launch the service in the area.
“Where people are not able to use public transport, or public transport is limited, or people are not able to afford to get to vaccination sites, we send in Red Dot taxis to ensure that we leave no-one behind,” said Transport MEC Daylin Mitchell, explaining how the service works.
Winde said the service would be expanded to more areas where there were transport limitations and low vaccine registration rates.
“So in Hout Bay, we’re seeing some of the numbers dropping now, so then maybe even there we’ll start to see distribution of vehicles and we’ll be doing that throughout the time, measuring and as soon as you have more demand, we’ll put more vehicles on,” said Winde.
So far, the service has transported more than 8,600 passengers to vaccine sites.
