It’s been a collaborative effort across the entire supply chain that has underpinned South Africa’s increasingly successful vaccination programme, from the National Department of Health to logistics operators and the medical aids and hundreds of public and private facilities that make up vaccination sites around the country.
“The challenge now is to maintain or increase the pace ahead of the projected fourth Covid-19 wave towards the end of the year,” says logistics major DSV.
“It is the success of the vaccines which will help the world live with the virus,” says Professor Shabir Madhi, the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and professor of vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand.”
South Africa’s vaccination programme received another boost recently thanks to a donation from the US of 5.7 million doses - which are being warehoused at the DSV facilities before being distributed to vaccination sites.
“Vaccines are the game-changer,” says Tracey Glover, director of commercial services at DSV Healthcare.
“We understand the significance of what we are doing to help South Africans get their lives back. It’s been challenging as we had to build out a highly complex business model in a couple of weeks.”
