The vaccine roll-out began in all provinces on Monday, 17 May, notwithstanding challenges such as load shedding, protests and getting accustomed to a new vaccination process, said Health Minister Zweli Mkhize at the Royal Showgrounds mass vaccination centre in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday.
Mkhize said things were running more smoothly on Tuesday, and no severe side effects had been reported.
Among the challenges on Monday was load shedding. It created challenges with the electronic vaccination data system but did not affect the cold chain, as contingency measures were in place already, he said.
The electronic system recorded that more than 11,000 people had been vaccinated on Monday; however, all the manual records needed to be added into the system.