“Can I close my eyes?” President Cyril Ramaphosa asked jovially just before he became one of the first South Africans to be injected with the Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday.
The jab happened as camera shutters clicked and bystanders applauded.
“At first I was a bit terrified of this long needle that was going to be embedded into my arm, but it happened so quickly, so easily. It was just a prick on my flesh and I really did not feel much pain,” Ramaphosa said, describing the start of the rollout as a “real milestone”.
“I was rather pleased that five people were vaccinated before me – they were health workers. It was a joy to watch them, to see whether anything had happened to them.
“It means being vaccinated is a fairly straightforward process.”
Labour ward sister Zoliswa Gidi-Dyosi was the first health worker in SA to be injected with the Johnson & Johnson vaccination at Khayelitsha District Hospital in the Western Cape, as health minister Zweli Mkhize and Western Cape health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo looked on.
The first batch of 80,000 doses of the vaccine were being prepared for distribution across SA with immediate effect.
Mkhize said he was encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by many in the healthcare field, including academics, researchers and unionists.
“The numbers of people that are very keen to join in is quite a lot. So it gives me a good opportunity to go back to the manufacturers and say, please guys, let’s match this because we can see the level of enthusiasm. The whole approach is that we hope to expand capacity so that we can vaccinate as many of those that are available so that we can start phase 2 earlier,” said Mkhize.
“As this batch has already been approved by the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) under the Sisonke protocol, these vaccines will be rapidly dispatched to all provinces.”
More than 400,000 healthcare workers are prepared – and have registered – to be vaccinated against Covid-19, and the number is increasing.
Mkhize said SA was expected to receive 500,000 Covid-19 vaccines from Johnson & Johnson in the next four weeks. By June, about 7 million vaccines are expected to arrive in SA.
He described Ramaphosa’s vaccination as an “important statement” that demonstrated his leadership to reassure South Africans that the vaccine is safe.
“It’s leading from the front, it’s leading by example. In the African context you don’t give someone something that you are not prepared to take yourself. And this for me is a major message to say the president has been vaccinated … so that when he stands in front of us and says take the vaccine, we can say that he too has taken the vaccine,” said Mkhize.
Among healthcare workers who vaccinated was Dr Sa’ad Lahri, head of emergency unit at Khayelitsha Hospital. Having lost several colleagues, friends and family members, Lahri said he felt compelled to have the vaccination.
“As someone in a leadership position, I had to lead by example. As a doctor who has seen the destruction of Covid-19, this is more than just leading by example. I have personally lost friends and family, but worst of it patients I had to watch saying goodbye to their families through video calls because the disease was too advanced and we could not help them.
“As a trauma doctor you experience death all the time, but nothing could be compared to Covid-19. The pandemic was far worse if you compare it to trauma. So this vaccine gives a lot of us hope ... that our lives can go back to normal and we can save lives without the risk of infection to us as healthcare workers,” said Lahri.
EMS practitioner Sandra Oliver, 42, said despite cynicism from some of her colleagues about Covid-19 vaccination, “I’ve got my mind made up, and that is why I’m vaccinating”.
“Seeing several colleagues dying, particularly my one colleague whom I’ve worked with very closely, left me shattered. I’ve been very fortunate that I haven’t had Covid-19. I’m not going to let this moment of getting this vaccination programme pass me by. Besides, it feels good to be part of this historic moment.”
Mkhize said there was no need to panic, as there was enough scientific evidence to show that Covid-19 vaccines were safe.
“I just want to say we have enough scientific expertise to detect anything that may be a risk to our people, and we will act before anybody is harmed. So we have brought in the vaccines because their safety has been established. Their efficacy has been established, but also their impact on the environment has somehow been tested. We will be observing all of that.
“The president has led by example. As far as I’m aware most of the professors want to get themselves vaccinated, the doctors, nurses. General workers are going to be vaccinated … Trade union leaders who are shop stewards are ready to be vaccinated. That for me is the kind of united effort I want to appreciate from our health workers, researchers, professors, academics,” he said.
Prof Glenda Gray, who heads the SA Medical Research Council and led the J&J clinical trials in SA, said when data about AstraZeneca vaccine came out two weeks ago, showing it was ineffective against mild and moderate strains of Covid-19 variant 501.V2, which is circulating in SA, the J&J vaccine was part of the plan B.
She said SA then started to scramble for the vaccine, compelling the pharmaceutical giant to look for the vaccine all over the world. Eventually the J&J secured the vaccines from countries such as Mexico and Peru. SA secured about 500,000 doses, which would come to SA over the next four weeks as batches of 80,000 doses at a time.
Despite the setback, Gray said the country’s vaccine rollout had only been delayed for about two days. She said her team worked day and night to ensure the vaccine reached all healthcare facilities it was destined for.
Mkhize said the AstraZeneca vaccine order would not be discarded or wasted, but would be sold to other African countries through the AU.
“Let me say that we have no regrets of having procured the AstraZeneca doses. We will actually and we have offered them to the AU. We are part of the AU, as you’d be aware. We’ve had inquiries that have come from no less than 25 countries who actually wanted to have access to these. So we felt the best way is to turn it over to the AU, which was part of the platform as well.”
“We will get our money back, actually,” he said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.