Vaccine healthcare workers

Photo: Unsplash

South Africans ‘pretending to be healthcare workers’ to get an early vaccine

How desperate do you have to be, to skip the queue ahead of our healthcare workers? Some South Africans are going to great lengths to get a vaccine early.

Vaccine healthcare workers

Photo: Unsplash

Well, this is just terrible behaviour, isn’t it? Alan Winde has issued a warning for all South Africans on Thursday, after reports emerged that some crafty citizens were trying to cheat the system and secure their vaccine early – by posing as healthcare workers. The Western Cape Premier isn’t happy with those who are attempting to ‘skip the queue’.

People ‘posing as medical workers’ to get COVID-19 jabs

Winde was addressing his weekly Western Cape ‘digicon’ when he made these remarks. There have been several reports of fraudulent activity in other provinces, and the Premier has assured the public that the regional health department is well equipped to stamp out these selfish actions.

“We have experienced some minor early challenges in the rollout of phase 1, most of which have already been addressed and resolved. For example, healthcare workers are our number one priority in this phase – and I therefore appeal to residents not to try and skip the queue ahead of our frontline workers.”

“To ensure that we prevent any situation emerging where a non-healthcare worker poses as a healthcare worker during this first phase of this vaccination programme, we will be requesting all healthcare workers to show staff identification, or to provide their Health Professions Council registration number as verification.”

South Africa’s vaccine rollout – how long must I wait?

As part of South Africa’s mass vaccination drive, healthcare workers are the top priority to get their jabs first. There are four phases of the rollout, and the first stage seeks to inoculate 1.25 million medical professionals. The next phase will then offer the vaccine to senior citizens, people with comorbidities, and essential workers.

Vaccines are being administered at a relatively slow pace, but that is expected to pick up in the next few weeks. Almost 42 000 people have got the COVID-19 shots so far. You can calculate when you’re due to get your appointment here.