The South African government is establishing an electronic vaccination data system (EVDS) to assist with the management and surveillance of the COVID-19 vaccine, reports Engineering News. The EVDS will help the government monitor vaccine effectiveness, planning and safety monitoring, as well as uptake and coverage, explained the Health Department’s deputy director-general Dr Anban Pillay.
Pillay, who is a member of the South African COVID-19 ministerial advisory committee on vaccines, said that the EVDS will roll out simultaneously with the vaccine in early February. Pillay said the EVDS will collect information such as patient demographics, number of doses taken, where the patient was vaccinated, vaccine administered and a record of vaccination issued to individuals.
“There’ll be a track-and-trace of vaccines using bar code scanning as well as the safe and secure disposal of these packaging, vials and data verification linked to the volumes that have been submitted,” Pillay said.
As vaccines begin to hit commercial markets across the globe, so too does a black market arise, which is why the Health Department said they will be storing the vaccines in a “centralised location” in order to prevent theft. This comes after the department was cautioned by other countries as vaccines continue to become a highly sought-after commodity.
In the next 12 months, the department plans to vaccinate around 67% of the population.
[link url="https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/govt-chooses-electronic-vaccine-roll-out-system-2021-01-20"]Full Engineering News report[/link]