WATCH | Doccie takes you inside SA’s race to roll out the Covid-19 vaccine

In January 2022, Discovery celebrated a significant milestone: one-million Covid-19 vaccine doses administered through its nine vaccination sites.

Set up as surge capacity sites in the early stages of the government-led Covid-19 vaccination programme, these sites have administered vaccinations to all South Africans, whether covered by private health insurance or not.

This is just one example of the success of the collaboration between public and private sector partners during SA’s Covid-19 journey, which has been illustrated in a documentary produced by Discovery — watch it below — featuring key events and milestones behind the scenes in the drive to vaccinate the nation. 

“We wanted to highlight the power and potential of effective public-private sector collaboration for the good of all South Africans and to pay tribute to everyone involved in strengthening our national response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Dr Ronald Whelan, head of Discovery's Covid-19 task team and chief commercial officer at Discovery Health. 

On the starting block

In March 2020, shortly after the first person was diagnosed with Covid-19 in Mzansi, business leaders met President Cyril Ramaphosa to offer support. Business for SA (B4SA) was established to facilitate a single co-ordinated and impactful approach to curbing the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Substantial financial and operational resources needed to be quickly mobilised and deployed to secure and administer Covid-19 vaccinations across SA. This required a whole-country response and unprecedented speed of delivery.   

“This was too big a challenge to tackle or any sector working on its own ,” says Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, Discovery Group executive director and chair of Discovery Health. “There is no doubt that by leveraging the strengths of the public and private sectors over the past two years, SA’s healthcare system has been able to better respond to the challenges posed by the pandemic. ”  

“Discovery has a long-standing commitment to supporting the development of SA’s health system and to public-private collaboration in health care.  Our collaboration with the national department of health through B4SA was therefore a simple decision for us to take — and a privilege,” says Whelan. 

Hurdles on the road to the rollout

In December 2020, the department of health asked Discovery Group CEO Adrian Gore to support the government-led initiative to procure Covid-19 vaccines for SA.

Prof Roseanne Harris, who leads the health policy unit at Discovery Health (and is also president of the International Actuarial Association) together with colleagues from the National Treasury, B4SA and the department of health played an integral role in quantifying and costing the vaccination programme and developing the blueprint for the rollout. 

“Considering the devastation our economy was facing and the complexity of the undertaking, assisting our government in planning and executing on the national vaccination programme was a no-brainer,” explains Harris.

“We were in a global vaccine race. We had to really punch above our weight to access vaccines for SA,” says Whelan. “We are proud of how the medical scheme industry worked together with the state to ensure there was sufficient funding available so that everyone could access vaccines free of charge.” 

Dr Noluthando Nematswerani, head of the Discovery Health Centre for Clinical Excellence, says: “At all times, we’ve faced an uncertain future — from trying to estimate the potential impact of the pandemic on people and economies to the real-world effectiveness of the vaccines that would eventually become available, to the possibility of viral variants which could challenge their effectiveness.”

SA went from the high of the first AstraZeneca vaccine doses arriving in the country in February 2021, to the low of a clinical study released shortly after showing relative infectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the Beta variant, the dominant variant in the country at the time. 

“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine then became our saving grace,” says Nematswerani. “However, concerns about the risk of blood clots and over this vaccine’s manufacturing process in the US, then further held up the rollout. Fortunately these hurdles were overcome, but these incidents fuelled the growing misinformation about Covid-19 and the vaccines available, which still requires effort to overturn.”

Scaling up

“What really came to the fore as we worked together [to vaccinate the nation] was the depth of capabilities and the sophistication of the systems in our country, across operational, financial and IT capability,” says Whelan.

“We have one of the most sophisticated electronic vaccination systems globally. Our electronic vaccination data system (EVDS) was built from the ground up in record time, led by the national department of health, with the support of various private sector partners, including Discovery. This is another example of how private-public collaboration enables far more effective outcomes.”

Initially, the national vaccination programme had capacity for 160,000 vaccinations a day, well short of Ramaphosa’s target at the time of 300,000 vaccinations a per day. The private sector’s support was vital to making up the difference.

“We quickly had a plan on the table to allow the nation to vaccinate 350,000 people a day,” adds Ntsaluba. “This capability then grew across the board as we moved forward.”

In early 2021 and over the course of only three months, Discovery, in collaboration with the various provincial departments of health and other partners, established nine mass vaccination sites spread across Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

These sites added significant additional capacity in the early stages of the vaccine programme when the demand for vaccination was high and the need to accelerate access to vaccination was critical in the face of the devastating third wave in SA.  

More than 1,000 staff were recruited (including many people from the hospitality industry who lost their jobs due to Covid-19) and deployed across these sites, with extensive management involvement from across the group.  

Kim Backos, head of special projects at Discovery Health, recalls her role in developing these sites. “It started with developing a blueprint for a ‘mass vaccination site in-a-box’, incorporating every element of what was needed to create sites that were beacons of speed and efficiency. The aim was to ensure a seamless vaccination experience through a welcoming, nurturing and efficient process.” 

“We made extensive financial and human capital investments in the establishment of these sites alongside local authorities. And we mobilised and deployed specialised teams to run each site,” says Whelan.

“The logistics and planning required to run each vaccination sites are extraordinarily complex. We had to take into consideration a multitude of health and safety requirements and local government approvals. These included that all vaccinators be fully trained and accredited healthcare professionals; and that all accredited vaccination sites meet stringent cold chain requirements, including specialised fridges, 24/7 temperature monitoring, dedicated security, emergency backup power and so on.”

“The real heroes in the story are the men and women on the ground, both the people administering the vaccines every day and those who support their work. We owe them a huge thanks and special tribute, which we can achieve by getting vaccinated, so that we can prevent severe Covid-19 illness and death,” says Ntsaluba.

• The vaccination site at 1 Discovery Place in Sandton, Johannesburg is now open and administering Covid-19 vaccines as well as booster shots. Click here to schedule an appointment. The vaccination site is welcoming walk-ins for those aged 12 years and older, but this is subject to available capacity.

This article was paid for by Discovery Health.