CAPE TOWN - The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has confirmed the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in the country on Tuesday and rollout programme will commence on Wednesday morning.
SAMA chairperson, Dr Angelique Coetzee said the rollout will include two-thirds to the public sector and one-third to the private sector.
The 17 vaccination centres identified for the rollout are:
- Eastern Cape: Livingstone hospital in Port Elizabeth and Nelson Mandela Academic hospital in Mthatha.
- Free State: Pelonomi Hospital in Bloemfontein and Universitas Hospital in Bloemfontein.
- Gauteng: Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto and Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria.
- KwaZulu-Natal: Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Durban and Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital in Umlazi.
- Limpopo: Pietersburg Hospital in Polokwane and Mankweng Hospital in Polokwane.
- Mpumalanga: Rob Ferreira Hospital in Nelspruit and Witbank Hospital in eMalahleni.
- North West: Job Shimankana Tabane Hospital in Rustenburg and Klerksdorp/Tshepong Hospital in Klerksdorp.
- Northern Cape: Robert Sobukwe Hospital in Kimberly.
- Western Cape: Groote Schuur Hospital and Tygerberg Hospital, both in Cape Town.
Coetzee said "We are also pleased to announce that during this first vaccination, the general practitioners have been allocated the next two Sundays between 10am and 8pm a slot to be vaccinated because they are frontline workers.
"But the other days it will be the public sectors and nurse and also frontline workers that will be vaccinated.The South African Medical Research Council is expected to handle the vaccination processes.“
Meanwhile, South Africa has asked the Serum Institute of India to take back the one-million Covid-19 vaccine doses the company had sent earlier this month.
The decision comes after the government put on hold the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine doses in its vaccination programme.