The vaccine rollout sites has been expanded to include 13 private hospitals as the Sisonke Programme gains momentum.
Among the considerations employed in the selection of the private hospital sites were the numbers of Covid-19 cases treated to date, their proximity to research and other healthcare facilities within their catchment areas, and to enable as wide a geographic spread of the vaccine rollout as possible with the limited numbers of vaccine doses available.
At each site, the National Department of Health requires that facilities first vaccinate their own workers at risk and those of the selected limited hospital identified in their catchment areas. The National Department of Health has introduced risk stratification into the EVDS as follows: