SOUTH Africa is set to begin with Phase 2 of its biggest vaccination programme thus far on Monday, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize confirmed.
This comes as the country emerges from a tumultuous year of 2020, which resulted in 1.6 million positive COVID-19 cases and 54,968 people losing their lives.
The phase two vaccination programme is being launched amid calls for action to address chaotic scenes at vaccination centres in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal by the portfolio committee on health in Parliament.
This was after hundreds of people including healthcare workers flocked to the vaccination sites in the last few days ahead of the rollout of Phase 2 of the vaccination programme on Monday.
Chairperson of the health committee Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said action was required to prevent these scenes from unfolding.
“The chaotic scenes witnessed are unfortunate and require urgent remedial action, especially in the context of the impending roll-out of Phase 2 of the vaccination programme. What is even more worrying being the non-adherence to basic health protocols of social distancing and wearing of masks,” said Dhlomo.
But Mkhize insisted on Sunday on Sunday night that the vaccination programme was on track. He said that already 325 260 doses of Pfizer will arrive in South Africa, bringing the total Pfizer doses in the country to 975 780 by Monday morning.
“We will continue to vaccinate health care workers, and complete the targeted 1,2 million by the end of the week We will also begin to vaccinate citizens 60 years and older, who are the most vulnerable for becoming ill or dying of COVID-19,” said Mkhize.
“Five million senior citizens are targeted to be completed by the end of June, 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 JnJ once released. The JnJ vaccine is still awaiting release from the Food and Drug Administration of America and we are constantly being updated by the JnJ global head office on progress in this regard. We hope to get finality this week.”
He added that Phase 2 will start with Pfizer vaccines at 87 sites across the country – with 83 in the public sector and 4 in the private sector.
These sites will be published on the SA Coronavirus Website, on I Choose Vaccination Bulletin and the provinces will also publish on platforms that they will announce shortly, said Mkhize.
Mkhize is expected to join Gauteng Premier David Makhura and the Health MEC Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi at Munsieville Centre for the Aged, Krugersdorp, at 10am as the country kick-starts Phases 1B and 2 of the vaccination rollout programme.
He said over the medium term, the health department’s most urgent focus is to combat the coronavirus through government’s comprehensive local intervention programmes, for which R9 billion has been allocated.
“We continue to play our strategic roles as co-chair of the ACT-Accelerator and Covid-19 champion of the African Union, following president Cyril Ramaphosa’s outstanding leadership in his capacity as chair of the AU in 2020.”
In a statement, Cabinet reconfirmed the commencement of Phase 2 of Vaccine Roll-Out programme on Monday.
It said this phase will commence with the vaccination of persons 60 years of age and older and the national and provincial departments of health will communicate the information about the location of more than three thousand (3000) vaccination centres.
“The commencement of Phase 2 will run simultaneously with the continuing vaccination of health care workers (HCWs) whose vaccination was affected by the regulatory issues that beset the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the USA and Europe,” said Cabinet in a statement.
“The Sisonke vaccination plan which was expanded to 95 sites across the country has vaccinated to date 434,980 healthcare workers (HCWs), and will end on the 14th of May.”
Cabinet has also announced that it was pleased that the remainder of the healthcare workers will be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine until further notice.
It also called on people who are 60 years and older to register on the COVID-19 Electronic Vaccination Data System.
Cabinet also welcomed the support of the United States for the WTO to waive TRIPS on COVID-19 vaccines.
“South Africa and India have been leading the initiative at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the waiver of TRIPS. The waiver of TRIPS will enable access to technologies that will give impetus to the wider manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines. The move has seen more than 100 countries, including China, supporting the effort to apply waivers to parts of the WTO’s TRIPS,” it said in a statement.
“Poor access to COVID-19 have prevented majority of developing countries in particular within the African continent to make significant progress in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet’s view is that preventing nations from developing their own vaccines in the face of high mortality rate as a result of the coronavirus is morally indefensible.”
Meanwhile, Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has urged the Gauteng Provincial Government to procure extra COVID-19 vaccines in order to innoculate more people.
The DA said more vaccines need to be obtained urgently to reach the target of more than 10 million people vaccinated in the Gauteng province.
“The sole reliance on national government to procure vaccines is unnecessary and unwise as health is a provincial competence. This is why the DA-led Western Cape is in the process of trying to get extra vaccines from different suppliers,” the party said in a statement.
“Sign our petition calling on the ANC-led Gauteng Provincial Government to also make every effort to get vaccines from around the world wherever they are available … The benefits of the vaccines for saving lives and livelihoods in Gauteng are immense, and the earlier, the better.”
- Inside Politics
