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Workplaces able to offer shots to all employees

• Shift in state policy comes before increase in supplies

Tamar Kahn Health &Science Writer /With Hajra Omarjee. kahnt@businesslive.co.za

The health department has opened coronavirus vaccination at approved workplace sites to all employees over the age of 18, scrapping restrictions that until now limited jabs to age groups eligible in the national rollout. Supplies are likely to remain constrained for the next week to 10 days but are expected to improve, said Business for SA chair Martin Kingston. Vaccination sites received fewer doses in July than they could administer, he said.

The health department has opened coronavirus vaccination at approved workplace sites to all employees over the age of 18, scrapping restrictions that until now limited jabs to age groups eligible in the national rollout.

The development helps simplify the government’s increasingly complex inoculation programme, which began on May 17 with people 60 years and older and then rapidly expanded to include a growing list of essential worker categories and workplace sites while progressively opening up to younger age groups. Shots are now being offered to people aged 35 and older, and from September 1 eligibility will expand to anyone aged 18 and older.

In a circular issued on July 26, the health department said there would be no further prioritisation of essential workers as all adults would be eligible from September 1, but the programmes that had already begun would be completed. These include initiatives that targeted health-care workers, teachers, prisons, security services such as the police and army, and the media.

The Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers Union welcomed the decision to open workplace vaccination sites to all adults, saying it would help ensure SA reached population immunity as quickly as possible. “The key now is for the authorities to ensure sufficient vaccine availability to meet the increased demand,” it said in a statement.

The policy shift comes as the public and private sectors ramp up capacity in anticipation of increased vaccine supplies in August and September.

Supplies are likely to remain constrained for the next week to 10 days but are expected to improve significantly as sizeable deliveries from Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson come into the system, said Business for SA chair Martin Kingston. Vaccination sites received fewer doses in July than they could administer, he said.

Earlier this year, SA secured 31-million doses of the single shot J&J vaccine, and 31.3million doses of the double-shot Pfizer. But it has so far received only 1.5-million J&J doses and 8-million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which include 1.3million shots allocated by international vaccine sharing partnership Covax. Supplies will soon be bolstered by a US donation of 5.66-million Pfizer jabs, announced this week, and deliveries of the J&J shot from Aspen Pharmacare, which sent its first 1.49-million doses on Monday.

“Although we have immediate short-term constraints we have got enough vaccine for the entire eligible population,” said Kingston.

“We anticipate that by October more than 80% of the adult population could have received their first dose.”

Increased supplies in the month ahead could see the vaccination programme ramp up to administering 420,000 doses a day by late August, he said.

Private-sector sites can administer up to 122,000 jabs a day, but the sector could more than double this rate to 326,000 jabs a day. Combined with the public-sector capacity to administer 205,000 shots a day, this could take the combined efforts of public and private sites up to 502,000 shots a day, said Kingston.

The mining sector has led the way in workplace vaccination and has 65 approved sites at present, 14 of which are now operational.

By Wednesday, 41,887 shots had been administered by mining companies, said Minerals Council CEO Roger Baxter.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited vaccination sites in Gauteng on Thursday and said he was optimistic the programme would see an increased uptake.

“The vaccination process has now been turbo-charged. They are going to exceed the daily vaccination target very soon,” he said.

THE KEY NOW IS FOR THE AUTHORITIES TO ENSURE SUFFICIENT VACCINE AVAILABILITY TO MEET THE INCREASED DEMAND

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2021-07-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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