Weekend vaccinations to roll out from August

Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane on Friday announced another big step forward in South Africa’s vaccine rollout programme with the implementation of weekend vaccinations.

While the number of daily doses administered are steadily increasing, the weekend figures do not stack up. This past weekend, just more than 20,000 doses were administered.

The health ministry had been in talks with the National Treasury to secure funding in order for additional staff, including medical and nursing students, to assist with weekend vaccinations across all provinces.

Since funding has now been secured, Kubayi-Ngubane said weekend vaccinations will roll out from August. The health ministry expects to reach 250,000 doses a day by the end of next week.

“The matter [of] funding of the vaccination programme was clarified. To this end, we will be starting our work to ensure the availability of human capital to vaccinate over weekends as well,” she said. “Our target for this is 1 August 2021 and my appeal is that we continue working together with the provinces to achieve this target.”

Lack of weekend vaccines

According to the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile (NIDS-CRAM) survey released on Thursday, the lack of weekend vaccinations has been a major roadblock in South Africa’s vaccine rollout programme.

The survey outlined the impact of Covid-19 on South African households, with a specific focus on the country’s employment rate and subsequent household income.

Despite South Africa trudging through a vaccine quagmire, Dr Nicholas Crisp from the National Health Insurance (NHI) on Friday confirmed the country is now in its strongest position yet for vaccinations.

ALSO READ: Covid-19 pandemic leads to 20-year school drop-out record

SA’s vaccine standing

Dr Crisp confirmed there are now 3.6 million vaccine doses ready for use in South Africa as of Thursday – both the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer doses.

At the time of publishing, the country has about 18 days of vaccines in stock, which is the strongest position the country has been in to date.

Some doses are centrally distributed while hospitals, clinics, community health sectors and the private sector account for the remainder. Dr Crisp said additional Pfizer doses are expected on 26 July, with another delivery scheduled for August.

Vaccines for over 35s

As it stands, employees in the healthcare, education and policing sectors are now receiving vaccines. While citizens over the age of 50 are now also receiving their jabs, Kubayi-Ngubane said individuals between the ages of 35 and 49 can start registering on 15 July, with the rollout set for 1 August.

Kubayi-Ngubane said the health ministry would continue to approach the vaccine rollout according to age sectors, but the process would be reviewed as the need arises. She said the “age process continues to be the best” as it allows the department to reach more South Africans at risk.

“This is one of the milestones we have reached, but we know that many people are saying it’s not enough in comparison with the rest of the population,” she said.

ALSO READ: Here’s when citizens over the age of 35 will get their Covid-19 vaccines

Support from the DA

The DA welcomed the announcement. Shadow minister of finance Geordin Hill-Lewis said the government had always had the necessary funds in the national budget to run weekend vaccination clinics.

“It just required leadership to unlock the funds and get this problem resolved,” Hill-Lewis said. “Now that it has been resolved, this is great news for South Africa and absolutely the right decision by the government.”

He said the implementation of weekend vaccinations would save thousands of lives over the coming year, as South Africa would then be vaccinating more than 1 million people extra every month.