Thread by @miamalan

[Thread] 1. Nicholas Crisp (@HealthZA): How fast can we get #COVID vaccines into the community? We administered 122 701 doses in past 24 hours (that's the nr captured by the #EVDS, so not paper entries yet).

2. The numbers on @healthza's vaccine dashboard will still increase for some of the previous days because we enter backlog paper entries daily (those paper entries are added to the actual day on which the vaccinations happened). sacoronavirus.co.za/latest-vaccine…

3. 300 000 #JnJ vaccines have been administered so far in the basic education sector. Second #Pfizer vaccinations started on Monday at general sites (so for the general roll-out). In the future the government will break down the 1st and 2nd doses on @healthza's vaccine dashboard.

4. 60+ registrations on the #EVDS have decreased from a high of 100 000/day to yesterday's 26, 636. But there were almost 400 000+ registrations of people of 50-59 yrs since yesterday. 7000+ of them got vaccinated yesterday, even though they're only supposed to start on 15 July.

5. How do we scale up to 250 000 vaccinations per day?
1. We need to open more vaccination sites
2. We need more people coming for vaccines (so we need to create demand) - that is why we opened up registration for people of 50+

6. We're aiming to vaccinate 65% of 50+ (3.3. mil people). @healthza is busy planning for the opening up of registrations for 40+ (no date yet for when that will start).

7. Next essential worker groups to get vaccinated:
1. SAPS (this will start on 5 July)
2. SANDF (no date yet)

All essential worker groups will get #JnJ because we need to use our jabs before 11 Aug when they expire.

8. We have 600 vaccination active sites so far. Most primary sites (so most of the 600) has 5 satellite sites which move around in communities and vaccinate, depending on demand.

9. Both public and private sites will now increase, because we have plenty of vaccines for the next 5 weeks. Which areas will get more sites? A working group looks at which districts are falling behind in coverage and those areas are then given more sites.

10. Evidence from some other countries show that when vaccinations for 50+ are opened up, demand increases among 60+ because the 50+ people take 60+ people along with them to get vaccinated. @healthza will monitor to see if that happens in SA.

11. Once the peak of the third wave is over, we will open up mass vaccination sites in metropolitan areas and also look at opening up sites at pension payout points. (We can't do it during the peak of this wave because of infection risks).

12. Walk-ins: They're part of the vaccination programme. It's not about whether should be allowed or not, rather how to manage them. We need both active and passive walk-ins so there isn't overcrowding but also not empty sites (as seen in the past week).