Discovery began administering Covid-19 vaccines at its Johannesburg headquarters in Sandton last week, alongside a growing number of private facilities involved in the country's second phase of the vaccination rollout.
More than 11,000 vaccines have been administered with an average of 2,400 people getting the vaccine each day.
Like all other sites, the company is using the two-dose Pfizer BioNTech vaccine distributed by the government.
Patients must be registered on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) and present their confirmation SMS and electronic voucher. Discovery says it is able to take walk-ins under very special circumstances – but strongly prefers individuals who are scheduled on the system.
About 550 people are scheduled every two hours.
This is how the process of Covid-19 vaccination works at Discovery's HQ, from arrival to departure.
Arrival takes place on parking level B6 of the building.
A portion of the parking floor is reserved as a waiting area for patients.
Just before making their way up to the vaccine site, patients get checked for their temperature and hands are sanitised.
They then make their way up to the lifts that lead to the ground and first floors.
These floors are dedicated to administering the vaccine. Each lift is sanitised before patients go in, and only four people are allowed in a lift at one time.
The next step is the patient registration process.
There are two registration sections with each reserved for either the vaccination site on the ground floor or the one directly above.
Then patients wait at another designated area, just before they get their Covid-19 vaccine.
The building's air circulation system was bolstered with the help of air conditioning engineers, Discovery says, with high-efficiency filters and more rapid replacement of air.
Then, they finally get their jab.
The Covid-19 vaccines are administered out of 30 cubicles which are spread equally between the ground floor and the first floor.
Each booth keeps a cooler box that has the Pfizer vaccine vials in fridge-like storage.
The Pfizer vaccine is kept at temperatures between -70°C to -80°C for long term storage. Facilities for the -70°C to -80°C refrigeration not on the site. The vaccine can be kept at -20° for two weeks and -2°C to 8°C for a further 30 days, all of which is being managed on site.
A strict temperature monitoring is adhered to, its system is linked to a mobile app that alerts the pharmacists and the clinical oversight managers and communicates for instances such as loadshedding and other factors that have the potential to interrupt the cold chain, Discovery says.
There is a six-hour window, and the building has emergency power generation.
Each vial has a total of six doses in it and Discovery uses up about 400 a day which translates to a daily average of 2,400 jabs administered.
At least four to five day's vaccine stock is kept on hand.
0.3 ml of the vaccine is drawn out of the vial.
After receiving the vaccine, the patient is sent to the observation area.
Before leaving, every patient is required to be observed for 15 minutes, however, patients who demonstrate particular risks get observed for an extended period for 30 minutes.
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