Following the arrival of the 1 million Astra-Zeneca Covid-19 vaccines in South Africa, the Department of Health has launched an Electronic Vaccine Data System (EVDS) which will be used to roll out South Africa’s Covid-19 vaccination programme.
The self-registration portal was launched by Health Minister, Zweli Mkhize who said the system was part of the government’s ambitious plans to digitise South Africa’s public health information. “It is a matter of national pride for us to offer a service that ensures our health care workers are prioritized and inoculated in an efficient manner. We have reached a significant milestone in our fight against Covid-19,” he said.
The system aims to ensure that those who are vaccinated are contactable and alerted to optimize adherence to the regimen. South Africa’s health workers will be the first group to vaccinated and have been urged to self-register on the portal at vaccine. enrol.health.za.According to the minister, 34 000 active health workers had already registered on the system.
“The system will then verify that one is a health worker by checking against the data provided by the personal system, private systems, facility data, employer data (for example cleaning or security contractors) and other data from organizations and other bodies that employ or regulate health care workers,” explained Mkhize.
“Therefore, whilst it is possible to register on the site if one is not a health care worker, the system will automatically prioritize verified health workers for the period of phase one. It takes less than one megabyte and approximately 2 minutes to complete the registration process and we will shortly demonstrate how easy it is to self-register,” added Mkhize.
The vaccine is currently locked away and will undergo quality checks by the National Health Services national laboratory facility in Bloemfontein before it is administered.
