At least 7-million South Africans will be inoculated by the end of June according to a new Covid-19 vaccine rollout plan which has been developed by an alliance of big business.
The plan, which has been awaiting the delivery of jabs nearly a week after President Cyril Ramaphosa said 31-million Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines will be produced at an Aspen manufacturing facility in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape, aims to vaccinate 200,000 people a day.
Business for South Africa (B4SA), a pact made of big SA businesses assisting the government on the vaccine rollout, said as many as 50,000 people could be inoculated at one site.
The plan has identified sites such as parking lots at shopping malls for use in addition to more than 2,000 sites identified by the department of health for a mass inoculation drive.
The government has come under fire from various sectors over its lack of transparency on the vaccine rollout and the logistical plan that ties with production line volumes of J&J jabs that were announced last week.
B4SA's Cas Coovadia told Sowetan that the plan developed over three months drills down population numbers of those over the age of 60, which are targeted in phase two of the vaccine rollout in SA, down to ward level.
He said the 7m people targeted for inoculation “probably end of June depending on vaccine supply” were mainly those over the age of 60 and those with comorbidities.
"We have a plan in place, all that we are waiting for is the vaccine to arrive," Coovadia said.
He said they were awaiting vaccines committed by Pfizer and J&J whose exact dates of delivery were yet to be confirmed.
Coovadia said business which has had weekly meetings with both Treasury and the department of health had provided expertise of professionals in logistics, IT and actuaries to ensure that the plan gets developed.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize told parliament last week that the first batch of J&J vaccines for SA citizens have been ready since March and are currently undergoing compulsory safety and sterility checks, as it is stipulated that the vaccines must be distributed one month after production.
Mkhize said in addition to the J&J doses, another 20m were expected from Pfizer and a further 12m via Covax, a World Health Organisation's vaccine supply mechanism. He said details around the delivery of the vaccines were still being finalised.
The SA Health Products Regulatory Authority last week announced that it had approved the J&J vaccine for general use with conditions.
The conditions include that the vaccine is supplied and administered in accordance with the department of health's Covid-19 vaccination plan and applicable guidelines.
Aspen CEO Stephen Saad said during Ramaphosa's visit to its facility last week that it had made a R3bn investment in a sterile manufacturing site which will be used for drug manufacturing and processing, including vaccines. Its contract with J&J means that Aspen will receive frozen Janssen vaccines from J&J which it will then mix with other substances before filling it into vials.
In an interview with eNCA at the weekend, Saad said the first batch of the Janssen vaccine will be available by the end of next week or end of April.
Aspen spokesperson Shauneen Beukes did not want to comment about the logistics of moving the J&J vaccines from the plant into people's arms and how many vials it fills per day.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the vaccination programme has been mismanaged as targets initially set have been missed including that of inoculating 1.5m people by the end of March.
"SA is being left behind by other peer countries because of indecisive leadership and bureaucratic bungling... the faltering vaccination programme needs to be resuscitated because its failure will result in unnecessary deaths," Pamla said.
'Honesty and truth with public vital'
Former statistician-general Pali Lehohla says the government is facing a mammoth task in reaching out to the millions of people that require vaccines.
Lehohla said that the task of inoculating the public will require good and truthful communication, immaculate co-ordination, piloting and zero corruption.
“I have not seen the government’s plan but from what I know is that Covid-19 and vaccines are very sensitive topics that everybody has an opinion on. Therefore it is important for the government to be honest and be truthful with the public. Tendering is a very contested issue that ruined the rollout of PPE [personal protective equipment] last year,” said Lehohla.
He said accessing rural areas and far-flung locations for the rollout will be a daunting task, adding that during his time at Stats SA, officials would sometimes use horses to get to rural communities that lived in the mountains.
“The complication factor now with Covid-19 is that you have to take into account the wearing of masks, carrying sanitiser and ensuring social distancing at the points of assembly. The assembling method requires clear and comprehensive communication that should say who should attend.
"Also, the vaccinators should be paid on time because you don’t want a strike situation like has happened with the census. All these things require serious project management because the delivery of the vaccine and the availability of the recipients at that point in time are very critical in this value chain,” said Lehohla.
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