Vaccination Programme On Course

By: Mfundo Mabaso

South Africa has reached its first vaccination milestone early, rolling out delivery access of Johnson and Johnson vaccines to healthcare workers through the Sisonke Programme.

In one week, 63-thousand-648 frontline healthcare workers in the public and private sector have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

This as the country’s second tranche of J&J COVID-19 vaccines having touched down at OR Tambo International Airport, on Saturday morning.

The new doses will be taken to a central location in Gauteng and from there, they will be dispatched to the vaccination cites across the country.

In a statement, the Health department says the Sisonke Programme is outperforming original targets for number of vaccines delivered in its first week, and is set to continue this momentum in its second week as more sites come online.

They add that they welcome the news that the single dose J&J vaccine is even more efficacious than previously expected, with a 64% EFFICACY rate at preventing the more contagious 501Y.V2 variant.