Health workers in the private sector have been allocated one-third of the first batch of 80,000 Johnson & Johnson (J&J)
Covid-19 vaccines, the department of health announced on Sunday, as vaccination made a bumpy start at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria.
The first private sector health-care worker was vaccinated on Saturday, and by the end of the day 3,000 shots had been administered amid demand "higher than anticipated from doctors and nurses". By Saturday, a total of 10,414 shots had been given across the country, the department reported.
In response to the high demand, which led to long queues at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, the designated site for the first vaccines, the department said it and its private sector partners were dealing with a number of "process related issues" to reduce wait times.
Appointments
The delays and queues appeared to be related to the electronic voucher system, which is intended to ensure that only those with appointments arrive for vaccination. However, the department said it encouraged health workers to continue to register on the system.
SA began its vaccination programme — the Sisonke Early Access Programme — on Wednesday, becoming the first country in the world to use the J&J vaccine after disappointing results from tests of the efficacy of AstraZeneca with the dominant variant of the virus in SA.
The early access programme is being administered as part of an implementation trial. The drug has yet to be approved elsewhere in the world.
The target is to vaccinate 8,000 health workers a day.
The private sector has been working closely with the government in procuring vaccines and planning the rollout. However, at this stage only governments can directly purchase stock from the manufacturers. SA has agreed on a single point of procurement through the department of health.
In a statement on Sunday, the department said: "Following productive discussions with stakeholders from the private sector, the national department of health and the Sisonke programme have allocated one-third of all vaccine doses available for private health-care workers. This means that one-third of the first 80,000 vaccines will be allocated to the private sector over the next 14 days.
"All health-care workers irrespective of where they work need to be vaccinated. This is critical and is aligned with the national prioritisation framework for phase 1 of the national vaccine rollout programme."
The department said that the response from private health-care professionals had exceeded expectations at several sites. "The confidence by health-care workers in the vaccine and the protection it offers is evident in the queues and higher than planned demand from doctors and nurses across the country."
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