More vaccination sites open across the country

South Africa is expanding its vaccination programme with more hospitals added to the list of sites across the country.

File picture. Dr Anike Baptiste, a specialist doctor at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, gets her injection of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. Picture: Jacques Nelles

The vaccination roll-out programme is picking up pace as the national and Gauteng health departments add more hospitals to the list of vaccination sites.

The Gauteng health department said on Wednesday four more hospitals had been added to the province.

The province’s front line workers were getting their jabs at either Chris Hani Barangwanath Hospital in Soweto or Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria.

As of Wednesday, four new sites have been added to the province’s public hospital vaccination sites:

Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital
Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital
Netcare Milpark Private Hospital
Lenmed Ahmed Kathrada Private Hospital.

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“The more sites are added to the system, the more health workers will be reached. I am pleased to see at all sites there is growing appetite among healthcare workers to participate in this early access study programme implemented by the South African Medical Research Council as part of the Sisonke vaccination programme,” said Gauteng health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi.

In the second round of vaccinations, Gauteng was allocated 18, 040 doses, with 13,840 for the public sector and 4,200 for the private sector. Half will be administered this week with the other half in the following week once delivered. The province has already used 16,800 doses, ahead of schedule.

More than 67,000 frontline healthcare workers have received their first shots within the first 10 days of the country receiving the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines.

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The national health department has added a further 13 private hospitals to the vaccination sites list across the country to expand the roll-out to frontline healthcare workers, the Hospital Association of South Africa said.

Among the factors considered in the selection of private hospital sites were the number of Covid-19 cases treated at the hospitals to date, their proximity to research and other healthcare facilities within the catchment areas to enable a wide spread of the vaccine roll-out with the limited number of available doses.

Each site would, however, require hospitals to first vaccinate their own at risk workers and those of the limited selected hospitals identified in the catchment areas.

Identified healthcare workers will receive an SMS which will direct them to the government’s Sisonke Vaccination Programme website to provide the required consent to receive a vaccine and make an appointment at the relevant vaccination site.

The 13 private hospitals are: