Hundreds of thousands registered to get their Covid jabs next week

Hundreds of thousands of people have registered for vaccinations through the Electronic Vaccine Distribution System (EVDS) as well as various medical aid schemes.

This as the government gears up for phase two of its Covid-19 vaccine rollout, which will prioritise those over the age of 60.

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Medical aid group Discovery said it had registered 300,000 of its members.

Discovery Health CEO Dr Ryan Noach said the company was in the process of registering medical scheme members on the tailored Discovery vaccination platform. This process is operating parallel to the Department of Health’s EVDS so members must register through both channels.

“In order to reach population immunity, we urge our clients to complete their vaccination registration on the Discovery portal when they receive their notification, and to register on EVDS when it becomes available to them. It is critically important to ensure that we get our elderly and high-risk individuals registered on EVDS and the Discovery Portal.”

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In Gauteng, where 1.3 million people are expected to take part in the second phase of the rollout, over 200,000 have registered through the EVDS. This as the province scrambles to complete phase one of the rollout, which is currently focused on healthcare workers.

Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi oversaw the department’s visit to the registration call centre on Tuesday morning. The visit was part of the department’s drive to have as many eligible people registered before jabs are due at vaccination sites next week.

Gauteng provincial health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said an announcement would be made at the end of this week regarding vaccination sites. This announcement would inform those who hd registered how they would get notified and what the plan would be in place on Monday, when phase two of the rollout begins.

“If you have registered and received your first message as an indication of registration, don’t panic you will be communicated with so that you get proper information on how you’re going to be vaccinated. Another emphasis is that not all the vaccination sites will be activated at the same time, the sites will work in phases.”

This is so that government can monitor the response of the first week and consider the number of vaccines at the province’s disposal. According to Mokgethi, there are 21 vaccination sites across the province, located in five districts that will be giving vaccines to the elderly.

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“We don’t want to vaccinate in all the sites all at once, we want to start small and then expand. Even with the J&J Sisonke study, we started at Bara [Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital] and expanded because as you meet challenges then you learn how to address those but at the end we will expand because we have a total of more than 280 sites that will be used for vaccination sites.”

In the Free State, the government has identified 97 sites which are currently undergoing verification assessment.

Technical teams are expected to hand the sites over by Friday in order to get them ready for vaccination of the 60-plus year olds by next Monday.

“As part of phase one, we have vaccinated 20,697 healthcare workers and have expanded the vaccination drive of Sisonke for healthcare workers to include healthcare workers in private [sector] and NGOs, traditional healers, funeral undertakers,” says Free State health department spokesperson Mondli Mvambi.

“We have begun communicating with our multi-disciplinary stakeholders within our intergovernmental relations arrangements, [namely] social development, Sassa [SA Social Security Agency], libraries, small business, community networks including municipalities, NGOs, faith-based organisations, councillors and ward committees, community health workers to ensure reaching older persons in all sectors.”

Rural towns were being targeted through established networks including agriculture and farming organisations, and rural health mobile outreach networks.