​Lerato Mailoane
Members of the Executive Council (MEC's) on, Thursday, 01 April 2021, visited various vaccination sites earmarked for the next phase of the vaccination programme.  
The visits form part of the provincial government's programme to ensure that Gauteng is ready to administer vaccines as more doses arrive.
MEC for Health, Nomathemba Mokgethi visited the Westrand where she went on a tour of three vaccination sites earmarked for the second phase of COVID- 19 vaccines.
This follows, the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday that vaccination is going ahead as planned. 
The country began its vaccination programme mid-February with Phase 1 focusing on inoculating health workers.
In a speech, Ramaphosa said: "This phase is on track to be completed within three months. More than 250 000 health workers have to date received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of the Sisonke trial." 
He said the country had secured 11 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is known to be effective against the dominant variants in the country.
"We have secured a further 20 million doses and are finalising the agreement with Johnson & Johnson. We are also finalising an agreement for 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses. Together, this supply of vaccines will provide us with enough doses to vaccinate 41 million people," he said.
Phase 2 of vaccinations is scheduled to start in mid-May, with registration set to start this month.
During her visit to the sites, Mokgethi said with this in mind it was therefore necessary for the province to ensure readiness for at all provincial sites ahead of vaccination delivery. 
Mokgethi's first stop was the West Rand Regional Pharmacy to check on the storage capacity of pharmacy and infrastructure that has been put in place for the roll out of the vaccination.
The MEC and her delegation were taken on a walkabout of fridges where vaccines will be kept and the centre's Deputy  Manager, Jackie Visser said they are ready and explaining all the protocols that have ben put in place for the storage and dispensing of the vaccines.
"We have two new fridges where we can keep an average of 10 000 vaccines each. We are also ordering the Pfizer freezer that can go up to 70 degrees Celsius which will be used to store the vaccines up to their expiration date," said Visser. 
MEC Mokgethi and her delegation of health and government officials moved to two old age homes KCA Care for the Aged and Mogale City Centre for Older Persons, where the elderly would be vaccinated.
She said these sites were very important as the second phase would concentrate largely on the elderly.
It is in line with international best practice, for government in phase 2 to prioritise those at the highest risk of hospitalisation and death, such as people over 60 and people living with co-morbidities, she added.
Government has established an Electronic Vaccination Data System to manage the vaccine rollout and direct people towards vaccination sites closest to where they live.