DURBAN - Discovery Health has opened a vaccination site at Park Square in Park Avenue, uMhlanga, with 120 support staff, including 78 ushers and data capturers who are mostly local youth.
This comes as the 18-34 cohort are set to begin vaccination from September 1.
The medical aid scheme said the youth employed from the local tourism industry were impacted by sudden unemployment because of the lockdown regulations that have impacted the province since last year.
Dr Ronald Whelan, Discovery chief commercial officer and head of the Discovery Holdings Group Covid-19 task team, said Discovery spent time taking what it has learned as a scheme as well as looking at the government implementation of the vaccine rollout.
“We did not want to just vaccinate but to give something back to the province that has been impacted by Covid as a tourism driven province. We are paying the young staff ourselves as a company.
“The site is open for anyone who wants to be vaccinated, even if they are not a Discovery Health member, at no cost. Discovery members have the cost and administration covered for the vaccine, and the government will fund non-Discovery members and the administration of the vaccine. But, you have to make an appointment to avoid disappointment,” said Whelan.
If you have already registered through the government's EVDS system for the Covid-19 vaccine programme and have booked your space, you can expect to spend between 30 minutes to an hour to go through the process if there is more foot traffic at the site.
Whelan said the medical aid scheme, which has partnered with the national and provincial health departments, has identified KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, and Cape Town to assist the government’s goal of accelerating the 70% herd immunity Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme by December 2021.
“We wanted to make every vaccine site convenient for the working group market. People, especially the young, don't want to spend a lot of time waiting, so this site has been established with them in mind. We have vaccinated 50 000 non-medical scheme members, which is about one in four people that come to our sites nationally. This is an unprecedented collaboration between sectors since March last year, and we are learning something new every day.
“This site is a testimony that there is power in leveraging strengths between the private and public sector,” said Whelan.
The Park Square vaccination site is open as follows:
Monday to Friday - 8h00am - 17h00pm
Saturday - 8h00-16h00pm
Sunday 8h00 - 13h00pm
THE MERCURY