[LISTEN] Gauteng health dept calls for order in vaccination roll-out

Health workers have been advised against showing up at vaccination sites without following procedures.

This comes as the Gauteng department of health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba, said that there had been a demand by healthcare workers to be vaccinated.

“Since the commencement of the roll-out of the implementation study vaccination programme on Wednesday last week, the demand to be vaccinated has been growing among healthcare workers in the province.

Modiba said on Sunday, healthcare workers had flooded Steve Biko academic hospital out of fear that the vaccine might run out before they received their jabs.

Healthcare workers have since called for more vaccination points to accommodate the large numbers of health workers who turn up for the jab.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine used in the Sisonke programme is said to provide 57 percent protection against moderate-severe disease, 85 percent protection against severe disease and 100 percent protection against death, based on evidence from the clinical trials that included South African participants.

Several other health workers, including a Pretoria general practitioner, have complained of being turned away when they went for their jabs at the hospital due to it having reached its daily quota.

Dr Lukas de Kock had a vaccination appointment at the hospital on Sunday.

He said when he arrived he was told he would not get his jab due to the hospital reaching its day’s quota “as many more people had shown up without appointments”.

De Kock said he was told due to an influx of people turning up at Tshwane’s prime vaccination site, people with appointments also had to stand in long queues to get the vaccine.

“I do not know how this will be dealt with. As doctors, we cannot leave our practices to stand in line for the whole day, because we need to attend to the sick. That’s why there was the online system but now things were different when I got to the vaccination site,” he said.

“No communication was ever communicated to me that my appointment was cancelled. I was only told when I got there.

“The doctor in charge apologised and told me several others were not vaccinated as a lot of people showed up and had to be vaccinated. The hospital reached the day’s limit, which saw others being turned away.”

De Kock said the vaccination administration was becoming frustrating and unclear for private doctors.

Modiba said the Gauteng province had received 16 800 of the 80 000 doses of the J&J vaccines.

He said these were allocated to two study sites at Steve Biko academic hospital with 5 720 doses and Chris Hani Baragwanath academic hospital with 11 080 doses.

He said as of Monday, 5 214 healthcare workers had been vaccinated in the province since last week Wednesday.

Modiba said other vaccination sites across the province would be activated when more vaccines were delivered in the coming weeks.

He said the Gauteng health department wished to clarify and put into context that the early access study vaccination roll-out which was currently being implemented in the province formed part of a research study under the Sisonke vaccination programme.

The programme is being led by the South African Medical Research Council and the national department of health.

“This has provided an opportunity for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be immediately made available to protect healthcare workers during phase one of the national vaccine roll-out.”

The department urged all healthcare workers to adhere to the outlined procedure by following the five steps:

Steps for healthcare workers:

1. Register on the electronic vaccination data system portal.

2. Respond to SMS invite for early access.

3. Provide consent to take part in the implementation study.

4. Receive your vaccination voucher.

5. Attend your vaccination centre for administration.

“Health workers are advised against showing up at vaccination sites without following this procedure.”

To register, follow this portal: vaccine.enroll.health.gov.za.