- If the official list of South Africa's active vaccine sites were to be believed, only 177 locations are administering the Covid-19 shot.
- The reality is several hundred higher than that, but the department of health has, for the past week, been unable to publish an updated list of vaccine sites, or to say when one will be available.
- Instead a list dating from 12 May continues to be promoted on official channels.
- Knowing where vaccines are available could help those willing and able to travel for a shot – or those shopping for a walk-in vaccination.
- Several thousand more sites are due to come online in coming months.
According to the official list of active vaccine sites in South Africa, there are only 177 locations where the coronavirus vaccine is currently being administered.
But that is far from the truth. Several hundred more sites than that were operational this week – and nearly that many in the Western Cape alone – as a mixture of private and public sites continue to be added.
According to the department of health, the number of sites being brought online must be tightly controlled because of a shortage of doses, even though shipments from Pfizer significantly exceed the current rate of rollout, and that before what is thought to be the now-imminent release of a big batch of J&J vaccines.
Exactly where sites are located is critical for the over-60s currently eligible to receive vaccines. Invitations to automatically booked slots on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) depend on having a vaccine site within 10km of your registered address in urban areas, and within 30km in rural areas.
Those willing and able to travel further afield for a booked jab could, in theory, alter their address details on the EVDS to fall in such a catchment area – if they knew where vaccines were being administered.
With some sites accepting over-60 walk-ins without appointments some of the time – at least for now – many people have sought a comprehensive list of vaccine sites to plan a day of shopping for such an unscheduled vaccine.
On 27 May, cabinet published a post-meeting statement linking to the official list of vaccine sites, the same list advertised on the front page of the SACoronavirus website, considered such a critical resource that every other website in South Africa was required to link to it under disaster regulations.
According to its timestamp, that list of 177 sites has not been updated since 12 May.
For the past week, officials from the department of health have been unable to say why that is, or when a new or updated list will be made public.
This week the department of health apparently agreed to provide the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape provincial government access to the EVDS, providing the ability to switch the location for a pre-book vaccination, then reversed that decision the next day.
A total of 3,300 vaccine sites are due to be operational at the height of the vaccine rollout.
