The vaccination of front-line workers took off yesterday with a pledge that there would be enough vaccines to inoculate 40m people, or two-thirds of the population, to achieve herd immunity.
There was anxiety, excitement and hope across major health districts in the country as healthcare workers lined up to receive the first jabs to kick-start the national rollout programme.
In Khayelitsha, Cape Town, President Cyril Ramaphosa and health minister Zweli Mkhize were among the top government leaders to get vaccinated in an effort to demonstrate confidence in the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid-19 vaccine.
Mkhize said SA has enough Covid-19 vaccine doses in the pipeline for 40m people and that the country is “not at all anxious” that it will run into problems with its immunisation programme.
The 80,000 doses of J&J vaccine landed from Belgium on Tuesday.
In Gauteng, one of the epicentres of the pandemic, the two vaccination sites at Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto were a hive of activity.
Steve Biko Hospital only has a quarter of healthcare workers registered to get the vaccine and the target is to finish its 5,700 doses in just two weeks, according to CEO Dr Mathabo Mathebula, who was among those vaccinated yesterday.
Only 1,200 of 4,800 healthcare workers at the hospital, which includes Tshwane District hospital in Pretoria, a twin hospital complex, have registered to be inoculated, Mathebula told Sowetan.
“It looks like either people were still reluctant or they don't have the capacity to register online. We have made a plan for those who cannot register electronically,” Mathebula said.
Dr Onnica Khobo-Mpe, an anaesthesiologist who lost both her parents to Covid-19, was among those to be vaccinated at the hospital yesterday.
She said it was important for health workers who are exposed to the disease to protect themselves and take the lead to show the masses that it's safe to be vaccinated.
“Prevention is always better than cure. We have seen many people who have suffered from Covid-19. The consequences have been very deep and immense for many families. I suffered the loss of my parents, both on one day due to Covid-19, and the consequences were very touching and demanding,” Khobo-Mpe said.
Khobo-Mpe, who has been a healthcare worker for 27 years, said though it was an individual's decision whether to be vaccinated or not, being vaccinated was an important part of the fight against Covid-19.
Gauteng premier David Makhura, who visited the two hospitals yesterday, said when the full rollout happens in the province there would be 160 sites that would include clinics and community halls.
Makhura said Gauteng was given 16,800 doses from the 80,000 which landed this week and 5,700 of these were taken to Steve Biko while Bara got 11,000.
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He said Gauteng had 215,000 healthcare workers in the public and private sectors. Some of the nurses that were yet to register for the vaccine in Pretoria told Sowetan that they would do so at a later stage as they were adopting a wait-and-see approach.
“I don't want to take the vaccine for now, maybe in a few months' time,” said a nurse from the hospital who did not want to be named.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) Gauteng co-ordinator Clement Marule said the vaccine rollout was still in the early stages and they expected more healthcare workers would soon start registering to receive the jabs.
“Maybe the low number of those registering has to do with confidence [in the vaccine] being very low still. We are working very hard to encourage workers to step up and see the importance of saving their own lives first so that they can also save the nation,” Marule said.
Mkhize this week announced that around 380,000 healthcare workers have registered to be vaccinated. The country has an estimated 1.2m healthcare workers in the public and private sectors, with Gauteng accounting for about 215,000.
Bara acting CEO Steve Mankupane, whose hospital has about 7,000 staff, said he expected the numbers of healthcare workers registering for the vaccine to increase as more workers realise that the rollout is running smoothly.
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