Over half a million digital Covid-19 vaccine certificates were issued in South Africa less than two days after being launched. This was revealed to MyBroadband by deputy director-general at the National Department of Health, Nicholas Crisp. The health department officially launched the South African Covid-19 Vaccine Certificate System on the morning of Friday, 8 October 2021, following several days of testing.
The online portal allows vaccinated South Africans to get a digital Covid-19 vaccine certificate, a recognised proof of vaccination. The certificate can be downloaded and or/printed and presented when travelling to countries that require visitors to be vaccinated or to enter events and venues that require or encourage vaccination.
It includes their personal and vaccination details and a unique QR code that links to the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) system. In the hours following its launch, the vaccine site was strained by a surge in traffic that caused network issues.
Several MyBroadband readers and staff members could not access their certificates and were told to change their connection or device and try again later. Crisp said the technical team has since resolved these issues and that the site was stable by Saturday morning.
As of 09:27 on Sunday morning, 584,074 vaccine certificates had been downloaded. Crisp also told MyBroadband that the EVDS system had sent 1.16 million SMS reminders by 16:00 on Saturday to people who were vaccinated by 2 July.
The SMS provides vaccinated people with the link to the site and their proof of vaccination code, which is required to access the certificate.
These SMS messages climbed to 3.16 million before 09:00 on Sunday. Crisp added the Covid-19 helpline had seen a massive increase in calls following the launch of the site.
“General queries rose from 770 to 4,708 last Thursday to this past Thursday with a steady increase from Monday when people picked up rumours that the system was up,” Crisp said. Information edit queries also rose from 800 to 3,600 a day in that same timeframe.
Source: mybroadband
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