Targeted assistance improves workplace vaccination success

22nd October 2021 By: Nadine Ramdass - Creamer Media Writer

Targeted assistance improves workplace vaccination success

DR THUTHULA BALFOUR Minerals Council provided resources to help vaccine efforts

Mining industry employers’ organisation Minerals Council South Africa champions vaccines as being integral to curbing the transmission of Covid-19 and protecting people.

The Minerals Council is following the approach of saving lives and livelihoods, which is linked to assisting with vaccine access.

While there was a delay in securing vaccine stock, the Minerals Council proceeded to inform its members about the vaccine as early as February 2021 and, from March, started to prepare for vaccination, explains Minerals Council health head Dr Thuthula Balfour.

The industry advanced preparations in the hope that vaccines would soon be available, while some companies in the industry announced that they were willing to buy vaccines for employees and communities.

However, Covid-19 vaccines were available for purchase only to governments. This led to the Minerals Council and its members joining government’s vaccination initiative through Business for South Africa’s (B4SA’s) initiatives.

The Minerals Council also contributed additional resources, such as coordinating and assisting companies in setting up workplace vaccination sites, which Balfour explains made a difference regarding its vaccination campaign.

Owing to unforeseen challenges, vaccination sites at mines were delayed, becoming available only after pharmacies and hospitals established vaccination sites.

“The first vaccination site came online on May 24, which was some time after we had been ready to be part of the process. I would say the majority of companies really came on board in bigger numbers around July,” elaborates Balfour.

The Minerals Council prioritised assistance to companies in establishing their workplace vaccination sites because the ten-step process to qualify as a vaccination site, issued by government, was too bureaucratic.

Balfour says many companies were failing to get through the process without assistance and, consequently, the Minerals Council provided specialised assistance for mining companies to fast-track the process.

“We even provided additional assistance for the B4SA initiative because we could see that companies in other industries were not coming through. For about six weeks, we had five people dedicated to assisting companies in completing the registration process.”

The key step that slowed companies’ applications to be a registered vaccination site was their registration as a health facility under the National Department of Health’s (DoH’s) Master Facility List, on the Electronic Vaccination Data Systems (EVDS), which required approval from the DoH.

Another hurdle for companies was acquiring the Section 22 permit that would enable them to handle vaccines. Many mines do not have pharmacies, which need the permit to operate. Companies had to either partner with a pharmacy or make other arrangements to ensure they qualified.

Companies also needed practice numbers to claim from medical aids and the government and most workplace sites did not have these. Information and resource sharing group Board of Healthcare Funders intervened and provided temporary practice numbers to workplace sites.

An advantage companies have is that they can bulk upload employees’ details onto the system, which enables companies to retrieve employees’ information from the EVDS and order vaccine stock.

As of October 1, most companies that applied for vaccination sites have their sites in place, with 51 vaccination sites available. Some sites have also made themselves available as secondary vaccination sites for other mines, occupational health service providers or pharmacies.

Some companies have also opted to collaborate with the DoH to provide vaccinations, resulting in the success of the industry’s vaccination initiative because it was “very well planned and well resourced”.

The Minerals Council’s assistance has resulted in companies successfully setting up vaccination sites that can assist mine employees and the communities near the mines, she adds.

Balfour says the companies; however, have not regularly updated vaccination figures because of the large number of vaccines administered at the sites.

In response to the delay in data capture, the Minerals Council assigned a designated employee that will ensure that data is up to date.

She emphasises the need for successful workplace vaccination sites, as vaccinating employees can ensure not only fewer fatalities and fewer cases of people getting seriously ill but also vulnerable employees returning to work.

While the mining industry was functional during the lockdown, vulnerable or high-risk employees had to stay home for their own safety.

Those employees’ livelihoods were affected, and while some companies could afford to pay their salaries, some could not, with those employees having to claim the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Covid 19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme benefit, which provides only a portion of employees’ normal salaries.

“The most critical thing is that lives will be saved. Some studies show that you can reduce transmission among vaccinated people by about 40% to 60%. That is quite significant if you can cut out the average 50% of those infections,” concludes Balfour.