Speaking to Bheksisa, deputy director-general at the health department Dr Nicholas Crisp described the vaccination programme’s setbacks and medical supply shortages resulting from the recent violence and looting.
The vaccination programme has been set back due to damage at vaccination sites such as pharmacies, and others such as clinics being unable to operate except for some in KwaZulu Natal’s outer rural regions. The programme is unlikely to reach its 250 000 vaccinations per day, he said, rather, 200 000 is a more likely goal. Currently, “going flat out”, the programme is vaccinating 140 000 people per day elsewhere in the country.
All of the available vaccines will be used including those Johnson & Johnson vaccines left over from innoculating teachers and other critical workers.
Those receiving Pfizer vaccines needn’t be too concerned about missing their second dose appointment, as research shows that the immunity conferred is as strong or even stronger at 42 days as compared to the standard 21 days.
However, he said that “the biggest disaster with the looting of medicine isn’t vaccines; it’s the looting of chronic medicine. For close to half of patients in KwaZulu-Natal, it’s gone. So much of the insulin for diabetes patients, the morphine, the antiretroviral drugs for HIV patients, are gone.”
The other challenge, he said, is getting oxygen to COVID patients via blocked roads, and delivering food supplies to hospitals, warning that there are patients who are without food.
Afrox has confirmed that its facilities in Durban have not been affected by rioting, and their deliveries of medical oxygen continue though often under police escort.
Source: Bheksisa
