The discarding of two million doses of the J&J Covid-19 vaccine, meant for SA’s faltering vaccine rollout, is a blow to the supply pool, which will affect all planning — public and private — across all provinces.
The vials had to be disposed of because of contamination at a US factory, which may have contaminated the ingredients supplied to the Aspen plant in Gqeberha, where the J&J vaccine is being manufactured. President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday that Aspen would begin with new batches this week.
Sisonke co-principal investigator Prof Glenda Gray told Sunday Times Daily on Monday: “None of our vaccine batches in Sisonke came from there (the contaminated batches). Our batches were investigational material.”
On Monday, a month after the launch of the national rollout, only 1.77 million of people had received a single dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, which includes the 479,768 health workers vaccinated under the Sisonke implementation study.
There is a direct correlation between poor socioeconomic conditions and a lack of access to resources, knowledge, support and know-how. The biggest factor is barriers to registering.
— Dr Keith Cloete
Sisonke co-principal investigator Prof Linda-Gail Bekker said: “The deaths are mostly in the elderly still, so we must continue to focus on protecting the elderly first with vaccinations.”
Reaching elderly in remote areas
Older South Africans are lining up for shots, either by appointment or as walk-ins, with provinces including the Eastern and Western Cape reaching out to rural residents.
The Eastern Cape was targeting 700,000 older people and about 7,000 teachers, and the programme was running smoothly, said health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo.
“We have vaccinated a 119-year-old granny, Nomamelika Philiso, who was born in 1902, and 97-year-old grandfather from same village,” he said.
The Eastern Cape had more than 100 vaccination sites and would go into rural areas with a mobile vaccination unit, Kupelo said.
More than 300 community health workers are going door to door in villages to assist with registration, supported by staff in social development and municipalities, he said.
Western Cape health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said: “In my travels to areas other than the metro, I can see that as much as we want everyone who is eligible to get registered and vaccinated, we cannot instantly manage the problems that inequality throws at us.”
She has travelled to remote areas “where there is no network and never has been any”, so she asks: “How do we ensure they get registered?”
Dr Keith Cloete, head of health in the province, said: “There is a direct correlation between poor socioeconomic conditions and a lack of access to resources, knowledge, support and know-how. The biggest factor is barriers to registering.”
Supply shortages stalling the shots?
In Cape Town, supply shortages could be the reason for vaccinations stalling at some retirement homes.
One woman, who did not want to be named, told Sunday Times Daily vaccine appointments at her elderly mother’s retirement facility had been cancelled.
“The place was contacted by government officials a few weeks ago. They were going to be informed of the vaccine rollout. That meeting was cancelled, and the manager of the complex then kept phoning the department of health repeatedly and basically being told: ‘Don’t call us, we will call you’.”
She said many of the people there were “over 80 and were very anxious” about getting the vaccine.
Another source told Sunday Times Daily her retirement home had experienced the same issue: appointments were cancelled as they were told no stock was available.
In both instances, elderly residents who had family members who could help them were taken to sites for walk-in vaccinations.
The Cape Town resident said: “She was told to go back in July for the second shot, but now that has been cancelled. She was told it could be due to supply problems and that is why appointments were being cancelled.”
Delight at vaccination
Simon’s Town resident Frans Venter, 77, was delighted to get a vaccine when he showed up unannounced at the False Bay Hospital site in Cape Town on Thursday.
He registered weeks ago but had not yet got an appointment by SMS, so he decided to walk in on his way home after an oncologist’s appointment, he said.
We must continue to focus on protecting the elderly first.
— Prof Linda-Gail Bekker
“I had tried about six days ago in the morning, but they could not do anything, and we had been encouraged to try at the end of the day. My wife and I got there as they were about to close up and they had a few shots left over, and they gave us vaccinations.
“I’m in remission from cancer and happy to have the vaccine. I am hearing more and more that so and so has got Covid-19. This time they are names not numbers, and people I know have passed away,” said Venter, who lost his brother to the disease in October.
Glitches in the system
The EVDS registration system seems to have had glitches from the early days when it opened to the public.
Venter’s daughter Nicky registered as soon as it opened and was surprised this week to get a vaccine appointment — even though she never said she was a health worker and is only 49 years old.
On Thursday, she drove to Jabulani Mall in Soweto to find out more, armed with her SMS, ID and medical aid card. “I went through three different checkpoints and told them I was not 60 every time. They said: ‘You are here, you can get the vaccine.’
“I said to them: ‘I do not want to take a dose needed by a gogo,’ but they told me to do it,” she said, of the process that took only an hour.
“There was a driver there who was 38 years old, and he also registered early. He was glad to be vaccinated as he does regular trips to Bara (hospital) with passengers coughing all over his car,” she said. In the queue was a diverse mix of aunties, uncles and gogos.
Decades of systemic inequality form the backdrop to SA’s hamstrung national vaccine rollout, which has inoculated only 1.8% of the population to date.
In contrast, the 2.35 billion doses given globally to date would be “enough to fully vaccinate 15.4%” of the world’s population, according to Bloomberg on Monday afternoon.
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