It is positive news about the vaccination campaign.
Saturday saw South Africa receive 80 000 Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines. Distribution to over 50 000 local healthcare workers seemed to get the three-phase rollout plan underway with a bang.
In excess of 40 million vaccinations have to be administered to get South Africa towards herd mentality.
So far, the government has secured 11 million doses from J&J along with 20 million from Pfizer. According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, a further 12 million from Covax is in the process of being secured.
The President announced the details on Sunday evening when detailing South Africa’s return to Level One Covid status.
According to Professor Ian Sanne, while both the Pfizer and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been found to be effective against the dominant variant of Covid-19 in SA, the logistics involved in storage and transportation of the two varies drastically.
The Pfizer vaccine must be held at between -80ºC and -60ºC, Salle said.
As phase 1 continues, the number of vaccination sites will increase from 17 to 49. Of the 49, 32 will be at public hospitals and 17 at private hospitals. Rural areas will be included to improve access to rural healthcare workers.
Phase two of the vaccination rollout is said to begin late April or early May. Phase two will include the elderly, essential workers, persons living or working in institutional settings and those with co-morbidities.