Covid-19 Vaccine Latest: Watch chaotic queues in rush to get the jab

Chaotic queues with no social distancing observed, developed at St Augustines Hospital on Tuesday, after hundreds of health care workers, municipal employees and auxiliary hospital staff arrived for the Covid-19 vaccine.

This comes after what at this stage appears that it may be a fake message circulating on social media, that states that the J&J vaccine stock expires on Friday 14 May and that “walk-ins” are welcome to arrive for the vaccine from Monday 10 May. The South African has been unable to establish for certain whether or not the message is fake at this stage.

Health care workers and other staff queued outside the hospital from 7am on Tuesday in the hope of getting the  Sisonke J&J Vaccine as part of the SA Medical Research Council and CAPRISA (Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa) trial Covid-19 vaccine. Health care workers were supposed to register online for the Covid-19 vaccine and obtain a voucher for the jab.

However, the message circulating on social media invited workers to simply arrive and queue for the Covid-19 without having an appointment.

“Government today realised they have 120 000 J&J vaccines that expire on Friday after which they need to be destroyed or returned to J&J – they today changed the definition of healthcare worker to include anyone who works for a medical aid or an insurance company that offers a medical insurance product,” the message read.

“They are desperately looking for arms to inject before Friday – given the most we have vaccinated in a day is 15 000 and we have 4 days to go we will likely miss the deadline by many vaccinations and at the moment there appear almost no healthcare workers willing to get …” the message read.

An accompanying official looking message that has the SA Medical Research Council’s logo at the bottom states “Walk-ins welcome!”.

“We wish to welcome health workers and personnel at all Sisonke sites Monday 10 to Friday 14 May between 8am and 2pm,” the message reads.

The more official sounding message asks workers to register before arriving but then states, “you do not need to have received a voucher or appointment site and date to attend.”

Watch the queues here:

A second video shows the congestion inside the vaccination centre:

A health care worker who was queuing at the hospital said the queues were “chaotic” and there were two queues – one to screen for Covid-19 ahead of the jab and another to join to get the Covid-19 vaccine. 

The KZN Health Department, the SA Medical Research Council, the National Health Department and CAPRISA had not responded to questions at the time of publication.  This is a developing story that will be updated.