Vaccination in G Route: a waiting game
President Cyril Ramaphosa was in Cape Town yesterday, 17 February, to launch the roll-out of the national vaccination programme at Khayelitsha District Hospital together with Western Cape Health Minister Nomafrench Mbombo.
As the country’s first citizen, Ramaphosa took the lead and was vaccinated together with a group of healthcare workers who received the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine. South Africa’s first batch of 80 000 J&J vaccines arrived at OR Tambo Airport on Tuesday night and was to be distributed from a secure facility in Gauteng to the other provinces.
In his State of the Province Address yesterday, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde said, “I have no doubt that the reason the Western Cape was selected as the site for this launch today is because of our advanced planning for the roll-out of vaccines to date.”
Almost 150 000 healthcare workers in the public and private sector in the Western Cape have been identified to receive the vaccine. Windy said the province is putting systems in place to procure additional vaccines to those made by national government.
The province is also supporting the efforts of its “world-class” scientists to identify safe and effective therapeutic treatments for Covid-19, which include Ivermectin. The province is preparing for a third wave, which is inevitable as most of the vaccines procured by national government will arrive only by winter.
Nadia Ferreira, Garden Route spokesperson for the Health Department, yesterday morning said no information regarding vaccination sites and the number of vaccinations in the district was available yet. During the first phase, healthcare workers would in all probability be vaccinated at their workplace.
Emergency use approved
The emergency use of the J&J vaccine has been approved by the South African Health Products Authority (Sahpra). According to Prof Linda-Gail Bekker of the University of Cape Town, who is on the team leading the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in South Africa, formal licensing of the vaccine should be in place around the world by March or April.
The South African vaccination programme, called Sisonke (Together), is an open label study that will monitor the efficacy of the vaccine among healthcare workers as compared to the general unvaccinated population of the country.
Participants will be monitored over a period of two years.
Bekker said the J&J vaccine was 85% effective overall in preventing severe disease and it demonstrated complete protection against Covid-19-related hospitalisation and death as of day 28 after vaccination.
9 million doses
During his State of the Nation Address last week President Cyril Ramaphosa said nine million J&J vaccines have been procured. Further to the first batch of
80 000, consignments totalling 500 000 doses will arrive over the next four weeks.
In addition, 12 million vaccine doses have been secured through Covax (Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility). This will be complemented by other vaccines that are available to South Africa through the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team. Pfizer has also committed 20 million vaccine doses and will start with deliveries at the end of March.
SA in talks with Cuba on development of vaccine
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said Government has been talking to its Brics partners and the Cuban government regarding sharing vaccine development technology so that South Africa can become independent in a future where there will be more public health threats.