TimesLIVE reports that SA’s first private sector vaccination site opened in the Western Cape on Tuesday as the province vaccinated its 13,415th person against Covid-19.

Gatesville Melomed health-care centre will be a dedicated site for private sector health-care workers in the Cape Town metro to receive their vaccines, said Western Cape premier Alan Winde. By Tuesday, 73,000 health-care workers had been vaccinated in SA since the rollout of vaccinations first started on 17 February. Winde said vaccines at the Melomed vaccination site would be administered as part of the Sisonke implementation study in which 40% of the Western Cape’s health-care workers would be vaccinated as part of a trial to determine how the vaccine performed in real-life settings. With the opening of the new vaccine centre, Winde warned anyone against attempting to jump the queue by pretending to be doctors. Health-care workers going to be vaccinated will need an e-voucher sent to them via SMS, their ID, as well as proof of registration or a staff card proving that they are health-care workers. Winde said these will be cross-checked with the lists of names submitted by each health-care facility to be vaccinated on the day. SA is currently in its first phase of the vaccine rollout, which restricts vaccines to health-care workers. Vaccines will be rolled out to the general population in phases 2 and 3.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Aron Hyman at TimesLIVE

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