The comprehensive strategy put in place by the South African government to vaccinate nearly 70% of citizens in order to achieve population immunity against Covid-19 represents one of the country’s largest and most complex logistical undertakings ever. It is anticipated to be as extensive as the national HIV treatment programme, and even dwarfs the national, provincial and local government elections in terms of the number of people who have to be reached within a short timeframe.
“It will require the active involvement of all spheres of government, all sectors of society and all citizens and residents of our country,” according to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Having already worked with the Department of Health (DOH) and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in terms of programme management support, Zutari is offering its expertise on a national and provincial level, as well as to the Premiers Offices and the five major metropolitan councils.
“We have to scale up from about ten million injections a year at present to upward of 60 million, depending if we opt for a single- or two-dose option,” explains Kate Roper, Client Director for Government, Health and Education at Zutari. Therefore the DOH has opted to bring private logistics service providers onboard to coordinate the importation and distribution of the different vaccines available.
“Getting the correct people and number of vaccines to the right place, along with the necessary vaccinators on a particular date and time, is going to require massive coordination between all stakeholders,” highlights Roper. Zutari’s work for the DOH and IEC to date has focused on centralising information from a variety of data sets to create simple dashboards that can quickly and efficiently flag any risks.
In terms of the vaccination drive itself, this includes contingencies such as an unexpected number of people arriving at a vaccination site, vaccinators themselves becoming ill and hence being unable to work, or even potential power outages that mean fridges cannot operate. Here a rapid response is critical to ensure that the entire process runs smoothly and engenders trust among the public.
Zutari has also assisted the Gauteng Provincial Disaster Management Centre in Midrand with the Emergency Management System it uses to plan patient transport and deploy ambulances when needed. On the healthcare infrastructure front, Zutari has completed two new hospitals within the last year, alongside facility upgrades for the Covid-19 response.
The first was Cintocare Head and Neck Hospital in Pretoria, the first Green Star South Africa Custom Healthcare Design certified hospital and the first Green Star rated healthcare facility on the continent. The second was the R3 billion Dr. Pixley Isaka Seme Memorial Hospital in KwaMashu north of Durban, which was fast-tracked to manage the Covid-19 pandemic response in KwaZulu-Natal.
Zutari has also played a key role in the National Ventilator Project for the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. This voluntary collaboration between experts from diverse backgrounds saw the local design and development of four innovative breathing devices that have proven essential in providing oxygen therapy for Covid-19 patients.
Looking to the future, Roper predicts that the experimental mRNA technology used to develop the Covid-19 vaccine in record time is likely to result in new advances in the treatment of cancer, for example. “The other area where we are likely to see major advances is in infection prevention and control, where tried-and-tested materials like copper and silver are likely to become more prominent as surface finishes due to their anti-microbial properties,” she elaborates.
In terms of the likely progression of the pandemic, Roper points to recent serological studies highlighting that nearly half of all South Africans have been exposed to Covid-19 and developed antibodies. The issue of population immunity itself is complicated by the fact that the coronavirus is mutating rapidly, which means that a yearly booster shot is likely to be required even once the majority of the population has been vaccinated. “What it means is that we cannot let our guard down, even with the vaccines, and will have to practice social distancing, mask-wearing and sanitising measures for a long time to come,” she concludes.
