Processes improving ahead of phase 2 of SA’s vaccine roll-out plan

COMMUNICATION between government and healthcare workers regarding the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out is improving.

This is according to Dr Rinesh Chetty, a KZN specialist network executive member and founder of SA Doctors United.

This comes after experts raised concerns about the slow pace of the vaccine roll-out programme, with about 5 500 doses being administered per day while some health workers who were deemed ineligible were concerned about the process of selection.

Last week, The Mercury reported that Cabinet had announced that the deadline to vaccinate health-care workers had been moved from the end of March to May 17.

Phase 2 of the roll-out programme would then start followed by phase 3 from November to February 2022.

Chetty said there was initially some confusion and poor communication during the initial roll-out process, especially in the first two weeks.

“The issue seemed to be related to a communication breakdown between local and national trial protocols, facility voucher approvals and local risk stratification of front line workers,” he said. He said when government switched over from the 1.5million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to 80 000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it resulted in an issue with the national Electronic Vaccine Data System(EVDS).

“The process had some teething problems and the logistical barriers did require multiple meetings with doctors groups and health-care workers unions to get everyone on the same page. It is taking time but the process is improving,” said Chetty.

Professor Morgan Chetty, who is a member of the service delivery stream of Business for South Africa which is involved in coordinating the vaccine roll-out, said the EVDS was problematic at first and people could manipulate their way into an early vaccination date despite not meeting the eligibility criteria.

Some people slipped through the cracks and literally “jumped” the queue, he said.

“The custodians of the EVDS then upgraded the system and put in processes so that people could not override the system,” said the professor.

Meanwhile the private sector will be included in the vaccination roll-out strategy from May according to Discovery Health Medical Scheme chief executive Adrian Gore.

Gore said in a letter to Discovery members at the weekend that pharmaceutical manufacturers globally were still not allowing private players to procure vaccines directly and even if this changed, the vaccines would still need to be registered centrally via national regulatory structures.

“The bottom line is that in this supply-constrained environment, vaccine procurement must be led by the state, with strong collaboration from the private sector,” said Gore.

Gore said the key issue was when the vaccines will arrive in the country, and the success of the combined efforts of both the public and private sector to fast-track vaccine administration in order to cover the high-risk population as soon as possible.

“The aim is to vaccinate three million adult beneficiaries of Discovery-administered schemes quickly and efficiently, with the capacity to vaccinate 50 000 people per day, pending vaccine supply,” said Gore.

Gore said Discovery was working with Business for South Africa and the Department of Health to ensure that capacity is in place, with the private sector to be included in the vaccination rollout from May.

Damian McHugh, executive head for marketing at Momentum Health Solutions, said the scheme would get involved in the procurement of vaccines if allowed.

McHugh said Momentum was currently in discussions with government departments to determine how they could assist further.

He said once the vaccines arrived, rapid roll-out was important.

“We believe we can utilise our wellness clinics, mobile clinics and onsite employer clinics to assist government with getting the number of vaccines issued per day as high as possible,” he said.

Bonitas spokesperson Lee Callakoppen said the medical fund was entirely dependent on the National Department of Health’s vaccine rollout strategy.