J.B. Marks preparing for vaccination campaign
On Monday, 8 February, the North West MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha and the North West health administrator, Jeanette Hunter, visited the two state hospitals in Potchefstroom earmarked for the Covid-19 vaccination campaign.
The vaccination programme for state patients will kick off at three facilities in the J.B. Marks municipality – Witrand, Potchefstroom and Ventersdorp hospitals. According to the MEC, the sites are static and the public will have to go there to be vaccinated.
According to Sambatha, private patients will go to a private facility in Potchefstroom, which will be identified soon. During the tour of the immaculate facilities at Witrand Hospital, Hunter repeatedly stressed the importance of the immunisation process and administration working like a conveyor belt. Considering that they plan to immunise 50 patients per hour, the systems must run like a well-oiled machine. Time planning is, therefore, of the essence.
Sambatha confirmed that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would officially replace the AstraZeneca vaccine because of the low efficacy of AstraZeneca, even in mild cases of Covid-19. The use of Astra- Zeneca will be determined later. He added that the vaccine would be distributed by one company to all state sites nationally.
The sites would have to have storage capacity. “Provincially, we now have a target of 2.7 million people in phases one and two, who must be vaccinated by January 2022 at the latest,” he said.
Phase one has been set aside for all healthcare workers. Phase two includes essential frontline workers, people aged over 60 and those with comorbidities. The general public will be immunised in phase three.
The National Department of Health says the Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, is confident that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine roll-out to health workers in South Africa will start this week, as part of a large implementation study in the field.
