You can register online for Covid-19 vaccine from April 16

Published Apr 9, 2021

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Durban - South Africans will be able to electronically register to be vaccinated against the coronavirus from April 16 through the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS), the Department of Health announced on Friday.

In a media briefing on the country’s vaccination roll-out programme, the department’s chief director Dr Lesley Bamford gave a blow by blow plan detailing the online registration, walk-ins and the on-day vaccination process.

To kick off, Bamford said that nobody can be vaccinated unless they were on the EVDS, but indicated assisted registration was part of the vaccination process.

“In setting up our objective of vaccination sites, the objective is to cover the entire population with best possible access but without proliferating and having too many vaccination sites which then stand idle.

“We need to ensure that every district or sub-district in the country understands exactly who their target population is and that they have the correct mix of vaccination sites and that each person who needs to be vaccinated is then linked to a vaccination site that is as close as possible to where that person resides,” Bamford said.

She said that there would be a range of vaccination sites, including public and private sector sites, which will be health facilities such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and GP practices and non-health sites such as schools, church halls, shopping centres and work-based occupational health sites.

“Once someone becomes eligible to be vaccinated they will then, if they are on the system, receive an SMS with the date, time and venue of where to present themselves for vaccination,” Bamford said.

She added that there were also queues at all vaccination sites where people can present themselves for vaccination without scheduled booking.

Bamford said that on the day of vaccination the first step would be Covid-19 screening and people who screen positive would not be allowed to proceed with vaccination, but they would be referred for testing or “other appropriate management” although they will be given an opportunity to be vaccinated later.

“The person’s registration needs to be validated, people do require some form of identification such as the ID card or equivalent and people who are on medical aid are requested to bring proof of their medical aid membership.

“We have to stress that there is no payment involved and vaccination will always be free at the point-of-service delivery.

“Once someone’s registration has been validated, they will proceed to vaccination where there is a short consent process and a few questions to make sure that there’s no contraindication to vaccinate after which the person should be vaccinated,” Bamford said.

Further breaking down the on-day vaccination process, Bamford said that they were required to observe people for a period of 15 minutes after vaccination and if the person remains well following the 15-minute period they would have completed their vaccination process and be allowed to exit.

“They will receive an SMS which indicates that they have been vaccinated and if they require a second dose they will receive a date for the second dose. If people suffer adverse effects we need to make sure that all vaccination sites are equipped and capacitated to manage those adverse effects,” Bamford said.

Political Bureau

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