How vaccination sites are chosen

This as most of them are arguing that they are being selected for sites that are far from where they stay.

A resident who stays along the R71 just after Dalmada says he was sent to the Pietersburg Provincial Hospital when the Mankweng Hospital would have been his preferred site as it is closer.

“Unfortunately one does not have the option to choose which site would be convenient. We were told that the system selects the closest site based on the address you register with but it was not the case for me.”

The man says it is also an inconvenience to get to a site on the day you are called to find a long queue and having to wait through it all.

He has suggested that the department should monitor how many vaccines they are able to administer and request people to come for vaccinations based on that.

Departmental Spokesperson, Neil Shikwambana says the department identified a number of locations in the first phase and those will gradually be increased.

“As you know we started with six sites and we have currently increased them to 15. The selection of the sites is dependent on a number of factors which include the availability of the vaccine.

“Our plan is to expand to all hospitals and primary health institutions such as clinics, after those we will be looking at community outreach locations such as churches and community buildings.”

According to Shikwambana, the selection of sites depends on a number of issues such as the geographical locations of the institutions and accessibility to those institutions.

“In the first six sites we selected a combination of tertiary, provincial and regional institutions based on their geographical locations to ensure accessibility.” He says the allocation of sites is automated on a system and is selected through the registered address of the applicant. “It will show you the closest available vaccine site and the dates in which you need to visit the site.”