JOHANNESBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2021) OHANNESBURG, February 3 (Sputnik), Thabiso Lehoko - South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Wednesday morning launched the Electronic Vaccination Data System to keep track of everyone who receives the COVID-19 vaccine as South Africa gears up for its historical mass vaccination campaign.
"It is a pleasure to launch the electronic system. This digital health system will provide critical data and an electronic database system built on the system already implemented. We welcome all to enroll. More than 34000 health workers have already registered. It takes less than two minutes to register and you can also register at the vaccination line," Mkhize said during an online event.
The Department of Health's acting Chief Operating Officer, Milani Wolmarans, took time to show the participants through the registration process.
"Within three minutes of registering you will receive an SMS message on your phone confirming your registration followed by another step where you will receive a message with a scheduled appointment," Wolmarans explained during the webinar.
Lesley Bamford, the acting chief director of the Child Youth and school Health at the National Department, said at the beginning of phase one, priority will be given to health care workers at hospitals, community centers and Primary health care, and general practitioner centers.
"Phase 2 registrations will not yet be up and running. We will start and use a similar process. Self-enrollment is efficient but not a requirement for those who do not have resources. Provision will be made at the sites for those who do not have cell phones and data to register. As a department we are highly promoting the use of self-enrollment," Bamford said.
Wolmarans has made the assurance that the system will not crash.
"The system is in line with National and international safety standards. Will the system crash after a million people have been registered? No, it is built on a platform that is already managing 59 million records by the Enterprise Architecture. This system improves administrative access," Wolmarans told the webinar.
Mkhize emphasized that anyone who works with patients or in a hospital must register.
"Anyone who touches patients, anyone who works with patients have to register, medical aid will cover but if you drop out of medical aid scheme you will fall under the government sponsor. You must just give us correct information if you have medical aid, if you don't government will assist. Many people are not under medical aid and we understand because this is a national programme. We also thank the team for ensuring this system," Mkhize explained.
On Monday, South Africa received the first batch of the one million vaccines from India's Serum Institute. The vaccines have gone for an assessment before they can be rolled out in two weeks. The government intends to inoculate 40 million people, representing 67 percent of the country's population of 60 million, by the end of the year.
On Tuesday, the authorities said 2,649 new cases had been recorded over 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 1,458,958. The results came from 28,942 tests at a positivity rate of 9.15 percent.
