South Africa has vaccinated over 63,648 healthcare workers in the public and private sector exactly one week after the country recieved its vaccine supplies.
“The rapid rollout of the vaccine to healthcare workers is a critical first step in the three-phase national vaccination roll out plan,” says Department of Health (DoH)’s Popo Maja.
“In just under one week, the Sisonke Programme has set up 18 vaccination sites from scratch, developed and implemented complex logistics (including cold chain management, distribution of vaccines, vial filling), trained additional vaccinators, set up an online electronic registration system and ensured the safe and timely vaccination of tens of thousands of healthcare workers,” he noted.
He noted that the original Sisonke Programme targets were set using best practice implementation science and modelled on projections of likely demand based on available data.
“Real life rollout has shown that demand from healthcare workers is in excess of original estimates,” said Maja.
“In order to ensure the quickest and most efficient rollout possible, the rollout will be adjusted so that the selection of new and additional vaccination sites will start early next week, ahead of schedule. This will occur in consultation with provinces and will seek to extend the programme outside major centres.”
