DURBAN - SOUTH Africa is one of a number of African countries whose citizens are not satisfied with the country’s vaccination roll-out programme.
In South Africa, whenever there is an announcement of a new batch of vaccines arriving or an update on how many people have been vaccinated, citizens express unhappiness.
By Saturday, 382 480 health workers had been vaccinated in South Africa since the vaccine roll-out began in February. Last month, the country called for those aged 60 and above to register for vaccination on the Electronic Vaccination Data System.
South Africa recently received 325 260 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Health workers will receive the remaining Johnson & Johnson vaccines and then those of them still requiring vaccines, including traditional healers, will get the Pfizer shot.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa has more than 3.3 million Covid-19 cases and has had more than 80 000 deaths.
WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said there were factors that allowed countries like Ghana, Rwanda, Botswana and others to deliver vaccines quickly.
“They engaged in very meticulous micro-planning. So it’s really necessary to quantify and plan in detail, right down to the local level, the vaccine delivery, the targeted population, how many … and then what is needed in various ways, the cold chain, the transportation, the people who are going to deliver the vaccines, the training of the people in order to make things work better,” Moeti said. “Secondly, several countries actually tried this out. They carried out a simulation to test what could be some of the obstacles you may not have thought about that you then identify, as you are … simulating such a campaign.”
However, Moeti said there were countries that needed to mobilise financial resources for and put more effort into vaccination campaigns. Priority groups for vaccination needed to be clearly identified.
Moeti said most importantly, some countries were faced with vaccine hesitancy. “There’s a lot of false information circulating around about vaccines, so it’s very important to engage right from the beginning in communication campaigns that really simplify and translate information in ways that people can understand – that the vaccine is for their own good … and it’s important to track the kind of exchanges of false information, fake news … so that these are addressed.”
Daily News