Private doctors, who’ve crooked the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVD) to get their family members and employees vaccinated against the coronavirus, will face criminal charges.
The South African Medical Association says it is aware that private sector doctors have registered their wives and employees to get the vaccine during the phase reserved for frontline healthcare workers.
SAMA Chairperson, Dr Angelique Coetzee, says they need the names of those who are abusing the system to take action.
“We will see if the system can pick it up because we know that it happened. But there are two problems: if no one brings forward a name it becomes difficult to say ‘look, you and your wife jumped the queue.’ We need the names. That name will be given to MRC, the Sisonke project and they will take it forward. There will most probably be a criminal charge.”
Phase 2 of COVID-19 vaccine rollout
Phase 2 of South Africa’s coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine rollout could begin at the end of April. To date, over 100 000 healthcare workers have been vaccinated in Phase 1 of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine drive.
Deputy Director General at the Department of Health Doctor Anban Pillay explains that the elderly will be given first priority when the second phase is rolled out.
“Our target is that we would have completed healthcare workers in April. By late April, early May, we would then start with Phase 2 which is the elderly – those with co-morbidities, for those who are essential workers and those living in what we call congregate settings or working congregate settings. Within Phase 2, we’ll have sub-groups. So, certainly, for example, in the elderly we’d start with those that are at the higher age group first, setting a target, for example, everybody that is over the age 75 will be vaccinated first.”
