Since our last MediBrief things are looking a little better. We made it through winter, level 4 lockdown and the third wave. Spring is around the corner, Covid-19 infections are slowly going down in most parts of the country and the government- led national vaccine roll-out is well on its way. At the time of compiling this edition, over 10 million doses have been administered in South Africa with this amount increasing steadily each day. Government has secured enough vaccines to meet its target for the rest of the year and more and more vaccination sites are opening up as we go. The Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) is easy to use, accessible to all and running smoothly. Vaccines can be accessed by all, free of charge at the approved vaccination sites. While some people weren't happy with the vaccine roll-out's progress a few months ago, we can now confidently say that we are 'on the right track'.
Our own Sisonke Trial has provided the world's first research evidence that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is effective against the Covid-19 Delta variant, protects against severe disease and death, and shows the immune response is sustained for up to 8 months. It further demonstrates a 65% protection against hospitalisation in the first 120 days after vaccination, indicating no need for a booster yet. This is not dissimilar to the research on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. There is irrefutable evidence coming out of the United Kingdom that vaccination reduces the need for hospitalisation and death significantly, even though the number of infections may seem alarmingly high. Everybody in South Africa over the age of 18 can now register to get their vaccine - whether they are on a medical aid or not - including homeless people, asylum seekers or undocumented migrants. While there are always exceptions where things don't go as planned, the overall roll-out is running very well, the vaccination sites - whether public or private - seem to be organised and every day more people in South Africa are getting vaccinated. Now it's up to all of us, the people of South Africa, to determine just how successful this roll-out will be.
On a national level, it seems that men are not as keen as women to get vaccinated, with only 41% of men being vaccinated. Our most populous province, Gauteng, while leading in 'doses administered' numbers and in terms of availability of vaccination sites, has a vaccinated adult population of only 18.19% compared to the Western Cape and Eastern Cape with 25.44% and 26.45%, respectively. The national average of individuals being vaccinated (with at least one dose) as a percentage of the adult population is currently 26.45%. If you would like to see the updated numbers as of today, visit https://sacoronavirus.co.za/latest-vaccine-statistics/. Looking at the AMS, 22.73% of members have received at least one vaccine dose, as of this publication. At first glance, while this looks a little better than the national average, compared to other Schemes we're not as good as we would like to be. As we all know, our members' average age is higher than most other medical schemes' and though we know that the virus doesn't differentiate by age nor spare the young and healthy, more senior members usually have chronic conditions and therefore are at greater risk for Covid-19 complications. The AMS 'population' has more reasons to be vaccinated and we should be leading the stats. Compared to a much younger Discovery Health Medical Scheme population, we are quite a few percentage points behind.
At this moment, vaccinations within the AMS membership per age groups are as follows:
18-34 years - 3.21%
35-49 years - 19.86%
50-59 years - 27.77%
60-69 years - 33.61%
70-79 years - 37.57%
80+ years - 28.78%
On an AMS level, Gauteng is leading with 22% of the vaccinated AMS population, followed by the Western Cape with 18% and North West with 17%. Our members in KwaZulu-Natal, where 32% of our membership resides, make up an underwhelming 9%.
What do you think is holding members, or you, back from getting vaccinated? Is there anything the Scheme can assist with? Send your comments to member@angloms.co.za.
If you have been vaccinated, please encourage others to do so. Many people are still waiting to 'see' or are unsure 'if we have enough experience with the vaccine'. Wouldn't 9 million vaccinated people in South Africa, compared to 2.5 million people that have had Covid-19, be considered to be extensive experience? By now we all know somebody who has had Covid-19 or who has even lost loved ones. The experience with Covid-19 was surely much more painful than the vaccine experience.
Published: August 2021.