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Online registrations for Phase 2 of South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout officially started on April 16. 

At that stage, registration was only available via the official South African COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Registration site, which you can still use to register.

Now, reports MyBroadband, registration is available via WhatsApp, USSD, and SMS for eligible citizens, which includes anyone older than 60, as well as healthcare workers who were not vaccinated in phase 1.

This should hopefully make the process easier, as well as quicker.

The new registration channels are as follows:

You can now register on the COVID Whatsapp number by sending “REGISTER” to 0600 123 456.

You can also register by SMS by dialing *134*832*your ID number.

If you don’t have an ID number just dial *134*832#.#VaccinateToSaveSouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/l1rY0svrGn

— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) May 10, 2021

The process will be similar to the website-based Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS).

If you register via WhatsApp, you will be required to provide proof of identification in the form of an ID, passport, asylum seeker permit, or refugee permit number.

You will also be asked for your medical aid number, and then you will have to read and accept the EVDS privacy policy.

As soon as that is all in order, you will have to submit personal identification data to register for a booking.

Other groups who need to be vaccinated can watch out for these important dates:

• May 17 2021 – Adults 60 years and older can get the vaccine.
• July 2021 – Adults 40 years and older can start receiving the vaccine.
• November 2021 – All adults 18 years and older become eligible for the vaccine.

Phase 2 is slated to start from May 17 and will involve vaccinating around 13,3 million people, which is planned to run through until the end of October or early November.

Phase 3, targeting 22,6 million people, will start thereafter, and our government has jotted down the end of February 2022 as the date by which we will have vaccinated enough citizens to achieve vaccine herd immunity (around 40 million South Africans).

Yeah, good luck with that.

So far, around 380 000 South Africans have already received the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

[source:mybroadband]