Business for SA (B4SA) has mobilised private sector resources to vaccinate about 163,000 people a day.

This will be done at pharmacies, employer occupational health sites, large-scale sites developed by medical schemes, general practitioners, private hospitals and mass vaccination sites.

This was announced on Friday as the government opens up its vaccination registration portal to people over the age of 60 years.

Martin Kingston, chairperson of B4SA’s steering committee, welcomed the prioritisation of the elderly as they are most at risk of contracting severe illness, hospitalisation and  death.

“This is significant progress. We must seek to vaccinate this group as quickly as possible and ahead of the third wave and onset of winter.”

The second phase runs concurrently with phase 1, which prioritises the vaccination of about 1.2 million health workers. So far, nearly 300,000 health workers have received the jab.

Kingston said the government’s calculation is that the country — across both public and private vaccination sites — will need to vaccinate between 250,000 and 300,000 people per day in phase 2 to meet the 16.6 million target timeously.

The private sector rollout will be in close co-operation with and under the leadership of the national department of health, he said.

“Together we are stronger. We will move faster, further and more fairly. We must move together as a nation to achieve the goal of vaccinating as many people as quickly as possible with the objective of vaccinating the majority, if not all the adult population, by the first quarter of next year, if not before.

“We are confident that we can reach our national goal of 40 million vaccinations by February 2022.”

Kingston said B4SA is capacitated with more than 100 senior volunteers from leading health care and professional services companies.

“We know we are at the beginning of a massive national effort. Not everything will be smooth sailing as we are building and improving this capacity as we go, but we are committed to addressing any issues quickly and collaboratively,” he said.

“Our volunteers, both individuals and companies, are not paid by B4SA nor do their companies receive brand recognition for their contributions. B4SA holds no budget and does not procure services.”

TimesLIVE