Clicks plans to expand Covid-19 vaccination sites

Clicks says it is prioritising the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines at its stores across the country, and has to date administered more than 15,000 vaccines at its 60 retail pharmacy registered vaccination sites.

The retail pharmacy chain said it has been working closely with the department of health and B4SA to support the national vaccination strategy and are using all the tools and processes provided by them.

All vaccinations at Clicks sites are currently handled using the EVDS SMS voucher process which ensures that stores are allocated the correct number of vaccines based on confirmed appointments for that site, it said.

“We’ve seen an influx of enquiries from those over 60 who want to get vaccinated, and on behalf of family members who are eligible for the vaccine.

“After an initial slow start, the rollout is going exceptionally well. We’ve had a phenomenal response from the public, with a high attendance and very few no-shows,” said managing executive at Clicks, Vikash Singh.

Singh said that the fundamentals are now all in place and the target of administering 50 vaccinations a day, per site, is manageable, says Singh. He added that the group’s objective is to have 602 registered vaccination sites.

An additional 240 Clicks vaccination sites will be going live in the next two to three weeks with around 40 to 50 new sites going online each week, depending on demand and vaccine availability, he said.

“Stores situated in areas which don’t have easy access to other vaccination sites will be prioritised in the rollout. Once all 602 sites are operational, Clicks will have the capacity to vaccinate 30,100 people per day, six days a week,” he said.

 Constrained supply 

Singh said that there is a constrained supply of Covid-19 vaccines in the short-term.

Should a vaccination site experience low supply, scheduled customers will be informed when additional stock arrives so that they can be assisted first, he said.

“We take down customer details and, as stock comes back online, we contact customers telephonically and via SMS using the EVDS system.

“For a project of this scale, we expected there would be challenges, but our mindset has always been to be positive and to swiftly deal with any roadblocks.”

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