Business for South Africa (B4SA) says the 230 000 daily vaccination rate is testament to what business and government can achieve if they work together.

B4SA steering committee chairperson Martin Kingston on July 23 presented an update of the private sector’s contribution to the vaccination rollout so far.

He pointed out that available private sector vaccination capacity stood at 110 000 doses a day, which could be further increased once more vaccine supply became available.

South Africa was aiming to administer up to 420 000 vaccinations a day by mid-September.

Kingston said the private sector had been doing its part to ramp up the daily vaccination rate. He noted the decision to start vaccinating at South African Social Security Agency pay-out sites was just one arm of an integrated approach to vaccinating large tranches of the public – an approach that includes health sites such as hospitals, pharmacies and general practitioners, as well as workplace and occupational sites, mass sites and mobile clinics.

“We are using every possible avenue to get jabs into as many arms [as possible], across the broadest cross-section of society.

“The key to the success of the rollout is ensuring that we vaccinate in an equitable way – which means providing vaccinations to all citizens, both insured and uninsured,” noted Kingston.

He added that the unrest in KwaZulu-Natal had affected wholesalers and distributors to the extent that there were no vaccine deliveries for about a week, and the usual weekly vaccine delivery had, therefore, been reallocated to other provinces.

In addition, 120 pharmacies had been closed, looted or burned, which included 71 vaccination sites, representing a vaccination capacity of 10 000 doses a day. More than half of these were expected to be back online by August 2, with pharmacies working together to continue vaccine rollout in the province.

Kingston concluded that new vaccine supply was scheduled to arrive in the next few days, which should see the country administering over 300 000 jabs a day soon.