Jill Fraser, one of the first people to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at the Zanele Mbeki Frail Care Centre in Nigel, Ekurhuleni, expressed joy about being vaccinated.

Fraser is one of 20 people who were due to be vaccinated a day at the frail care facility, which has close to 200 residents.

She said the process was quick once it started. The programme to vaccinate the 20 residents began when Gauteng finance MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko visited the centre after 11am.

She had earlier visited the Bertha Gxowa Hospital vaccination site to observe the second phase of the vaccination rollout, which targets people who are 60 and older and those with comorbidities.

"I am very happy to have had the vaccination. I was feeling very vulnerable until this point and I am delighted. It was not painful,” Fraser said in the observation area, where she sat for 15 minutes after she was vaccinated.

During her visit, the nursing staff at the centre took Nkomo-Ralehoko through the steps those who were to be vaccinated were due to take.

After being inoculated a resident is taken to an observation area, where he or she stays for 15 minutes to see if there are any adverse reactions to the vaccine. If there is an adverse reaction, there is another area with beds where residents will be attended to.

At noon, no-one had been taken to that room.

Others in the queue also expressed happiness at the chance to be vaccinated.

Resident Joseph Mthiyane, 71, said he was happy to be vaccinated and said he will feel safer after being inoculated.

Those who were too frail to register were in the vaccination queue after their relatives gave consent for them to receive the jabs.

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