The vaccine rollout programme in Gauteng is in preparation stage, with the provincial government determining the hospitals and clinics where health workers can receive their jabs.

Planning in three other provinces - the Western Cape, Limpopo and the Northern Cape - is also in full swing.

Gauteng 

Officials signalled there are 402 primary health care clinics in the public sector and 33 hospitals which will be used as vaccination sites. About 165 private hospitals and clinics in the province will also be used as vaccination sites.

“We will look at the vaccination sites registered with the national department of health ... We have more than 1,600 sites available to be used for this campaign in Gauteng,” said the Gauteng health department.

“To cover the total target population by the end of 2021, we would need to average 95,747 vaccines a day, assuming two doses a patient, with 21 working days a month available and excluding public holidays.”

Western Cape

The province's vaccinations will officially start by no later than February 15, according to premier Alan Winde.

The vaccines will be rolled out in three separate phases, starting with health-care workers who are on the front line. 

“The national department of health has confirmed that the Western Cape will receive 35,000 first doses for public sector health-care workers, and 58,584 first doses for private sector health-care workers (including hospitals, specialists, GPs, pathologists, radiographers, pharmacists, allied health workers, dentists, and other health-care workers).

“The number of vaccines available for city health, outsourced workers, community health-care workers, students, undertakers, and traditional healers is still being finalised by the national government, and we expect an additional allocation to our province to cover these important front line workers,” said Winde.

For the first phase, the province identified 378 public sector facilities and 41 private facilities where vaccinations will take place.  

Northern Cape

The first coronavirus shots in the Northern Cape will be given next week.

Premier Zamani Saul said the distribution of the first batch of vaccines, which landed at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport on Monday, will be delivered to the province between February 7 and 9.

“This means that the vaccination of health-care workers, in line with the phased approach of the vaccine rollout plan, will start on February 10,” said Saul.

Saul revealed this during the provincial vaccine rollout plan briefing on Thursday. According to the premier, the distribution of the vaccine will also follow the three-phase approach.

Phase 1 will focus on 14,000 front-line health-care workers at 15 vaccination centres, while the second instalment is aimed at essential workers, people in congregate settings, pensioners and those with underlying health conditions. 

“Phase 3 will focus on the remaining population,” said Saul.

Limpopo

Limpopo premier Stan Mathabatha on Thursday said the province has been allocated 44,526 Covid-19 vaccine doses.

“To date, the province has identified 39 sites that are ready to administer the vaccination process throughout the province,” Mathabatha said.

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