NATIONAL NEWS - South Africa’s vaccine rollout was slow to start and even the current acceleration leaves the country far behind where it should be.
A large part of the problem is global competition for vaccine supply. Yet much more needs to be done to ensure that the available vaccines get into the arms of South Africans as fast as possible.
Provinces and sites are currently performing unevenly, which should not surprise us. It is not clear how the government will address this challenge, especially as the supply of available vaccines grows.
Africa has been at the back of the queue for vaccine delivery. By the end of May, only 2.5 vaccines had been delivered per 100 people on the continent. Yet South Africa has performed poorly even within the African context.
Whereas South Africa has delivered only 1.6 vaccines per 100 people, Namibia has delivered twice this rate, and Botswana and Zimbabwe more than three times this rate. South Africa accounts for 43% of confirmed Covid-19 deaths but only 3% of vaccinations in Africa.
As of 6 June, about 500,000 people had been fully vaccinated by a single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through the Sisonke trial (for health workers) and a further almost 800,000 had received their first dose (out of a required two) of the Pfizer vaccine through the government’s vaccination programme.
Yet, at that point, almost 2.5 million doses had been flown into the country. Even accounting for wastage (of 15%, because vaccinators often fail to get the full six vaccines out of each vial), delivery time and regulatory delays (related to quality control), the data suggest that South Africa had about 780,000 doses of unused vaccine in the system.
The government has started to release data showing how its rollout of Pfizer vaccines is progressing. This can help us see where some of this ‘surplus’ might be.
The National Department of Health currently divides the vaccine supply between private sector sites (24%) and public sector sites (76%). Private sector sites include pharmacies (especially Dis-Chem and Clicks), medical aid schemes (such as Discovery) and, at least prospectively, selected employers.
The public sector supply is allocated to provinces in accordance with their share of people aged 60 or older.
