It’s finally happening! SA ready to begin official vaccination rollout

On Monday South Africa will officially begin with phase two of the vaccination rollout against Covid-19, starting with the population of 60 years old and above.

There were concerns that by Sunday night not a single registered senior citizen had received an SMS inviting them to vaccination sites. Some provinces also only had a limited number of vaccination sites which were ready to go.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that only 7 707 SMSs were going to be dispatched to healthcare workers and 4 288 SMSs to citizens 60 years and above by Monday morning.

ALSO READ: Gauteng officially in third Covid-19 wave

He said that this was done to help vaccinators familiarise themselves with the process and not get overwhelmed in the first days on the programme.

Mkhize was joined by the health MECs during a webinar where provinces outlined their detailed plans on the state of readiness in rolling out the vaccines.

“Tomorrow (Monday) phase two will start as planned with Pfizer vaccines at 87 sites across the country- 83 in the public sector and 4 in the private sector,” said Mkhize.

This marks the end of the Sisonke Programme which has already vaccinated a total of 478 733 South Africans. The programme had received a total of 500 000 doses.

Mkhize said that the remainder of the vaccines will be used by the Medical research Council to conduct studies, and programmes that will help in understanding of how the vaccines work for population groups such as persons living with HIV and other co-morbidities, elite athletes, pregnant and lactating women, and other special groups.

Mkhize said that on Sunday at midnight South Africa will receive another batch of 325 260 doses of Pfizer vaccines, bringing the total Pfizer doses in the country to 975 780 by Monday morning.

ALSO READ: Here are your Gauteng Phase 2 Covid-19 vaccination sites

About five million senior citizens are targeted to be completed by the end of June.

Asked how realistic was the target given hiccups that were witnessed during the Sisonke trial, Mkhize said this was only going to be possible “provided that the supply of vaccines flow as anticipated.”

“By end June we expect to have received 4,5 million doses of Pfizer and, 2 million doses of J&J once released.”

“The J&J vaccine is still awaiting release from the Food and Drug Administration of America and we are constantly being updated by the J&J global head office on progress in this regard. We hope to get finality this week,” Mkhize said.