'We need that single-minded attention to vaccine programme': expert

Now that the TikTok generation’s vaccine rollout has been brought forward, inoculation numbers are expected to rise significantly. But experts alarmed by the flagging vaccination campaign said this should not take eyes off the prize of getting older and far more vulnerable people protected.

Francois Venter, professor of medicine at Wits University, said: “It is hard to overstate what a catastrophe the slowdown in national vaccination rates is, even among younger populations. I do not understand why every arm of government is not out vaccinating — why is this being left to health?

“We shut the entire country down for three months. We need that single-minded attention to the vaccine programme.”

Jabs for those aged 18 to 34 began on Friday, 11 days earlier than initially planned, after SA passed the 10-million jab mark on the 94th day of the rollout. Just over half a million of those are health workers vaccinated between February and May under the Sisonke programme to evaluate the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Because the rollout had been “stalling among the targeted groups” above age 35, professor Shabir Madhi, a vaccinology expert at Wits, said it “made sense to expand to other groups rather than having vaccines lie in depots”.

However, the impact this will have on the epidemiology of the virus might not be as great as one might expect, he said.

“The major value of vaccination is prevention of severe disease and death, so the priority still needs to be getting at least 85%-90% coverage of people above 60 years and [those of any age] with underlying medical conditions that place them at risk of developing severe Covid,” he said.

Although vaccines protect against severe disease and death, but only halve the risk of infection and transmission, getting as many people as possible inoculated “could still have a significant impact on the magnitude of future resurgences”.

Madhi called on the government to be “more transparent in its reporting of vaccine coverage, which needs to be analysed, at the minimum, by age-group strata”.

This, he said, would guard against “claiming hollow victories as the number of vaccinated individuals increases while there is little increase in coverage of high-risk groups”.

Professor Wolfgang Preiser, a virologist at Stellenbosch University, said it was a “good step forward” that the younger cohort is now eligible but “uptake and not supply” was what had slowed progress.

This is against a backdrop of a third wave that health minister Joe Phaahla said is still “stubbornly in our midst”.

KwaZulu-Natal is a big concern, said Lisa Jamieson, a senior researcher at the Wits Health Consortium. “It accounts for 25% of all new cases that have been reported in the last week, and it has been on the increase (+24% compared to seven days prior).”

She said eThekwini and uMgungundlovu were worst affected, accounting for 67% of new cases in KwaZulu-Natal.

Jamieson said: “Gauteng as a province has reached the end-of-wave threshold as cases continue to decline, but that weekly case incidence still remains high across all districts.”

In the Western Cape, the third wave has not abated but slight signs of decline are showing, said head of health Dr Keith Cloete. Hospitalisations have dropped by 8% and deaths by 17%.

However, with more than 46,000 active cases, said Cloete, “the risk of being exposed is still very high and … early signs of a decline do not mean we are out of the woods. Gatherings still pose a very high risk.”