After a sluggish start for lack of sufficient doses, the anti-covid vaccination campaign in Algeria has accelerated in recent days under the effect of the outbreak of the pandemic.
The Algerians are jostling in front of the vaccination centers, but the operation takes place in chaotic conditions. Reportage.
In Algiers, you have to get up very early to hope to receive your dose of the anti-covid vaccine. In public health centers, tokens are distributed and the vaccine doses are awaited. There will not be for everyone!
People are jostling around vaccination centers in the hope of getting the famous sesame. A piece of paper with a number written on it.
If necessary, you have to come back the next day, preferably at dawn. Vaccination ends at midday depending on the available doses. The dispensaries where we went on Sunday, July 25, are sorely understaffed. Vaccination is slowing down, as the Ministry of Health has appealed to Algerians to be vaccinated against covid-19. You have to arm yourself with a good dose of patience before you can extend your arm to the nurse on duty.
Luck early risers
Krim Belkacem Health Center (Telemly). We show up at 8:30 am Behind the closed gate of the dispensary, the security guard informs us that there are no more tokens available for this morning and that we must come back tomorrow, very early, around 6 or 7 am.
On the sidewalk, about twenty people are pressing against each other. Barrier gestures are ignored. Everyone waits their turn in incredible and dangerous promiscuity.
“I live in the neighborhood,” says a 70-year-old lady. After missing the ticket four times in a row, I showed up this morning at 6 a.m. Some arrived at 5 a.m. The citizens organize themselves to write their names on a sheet of paper, in the order of arrival in order to avoid disputes. Ticket distribution by the security guard begins at 8 a.m. We have to wait several hours standing in the sun before we can go in and get vaccinated.”
In front of the gate of this structure, people are starting to get excited. There is electricity in the air. An old man lets his anger explode.
“Two months ago, I was given an appointment for July 26 and now I am told that there is no more ticket for me! What is this organization? He gets carried away. To calm him down, the security guard gives him a ticket number: 62.
The septuagenarian will have to wait until around 1 p.m. to see his turn arrive since the vaccination has not yet started. The vaccines arrived shortly before 9 am transported in a kind of cooler by a motorcyclist. The news spread like wildfire around the sidewalk. “There are a hundred doses today!”
Some are unhappy like this lady who regrets the privileges.
“There are people who arrive like flowers and who come first,” she fumed. There are not enough doses for everyone”.
As for a gentleman, he would like to appeal to the authorities: “Please, there are sick and elderly people who wait for hours to be vaccinated. Why not extend vaccination to our attending physicians and pharmacists to relieve congestion in neighborhood clinics”.
Lack of staff
Lounis Maamar treatment room (EPS Sidi M’hamed Bouchenafa), there is also a crowd. Citizens do not respect distances. Tickets were distributed around 8:00 am.
“Today, we are going to vaccinate between 30 and 40 people,” the receptionist told us. “It is the quantity of doses that we received this morning, against 52 doses yesterday”.
She deplores the poor working conditions and the slowdown in vaccination due to a lack of staff.
“We had two nurses at this local structure. One contracted the covid. There is only the second left to vaccinate all these beautiful people. This center is not intended for vaccination only. We continue to receive patients for consultation. There is only one doctor left. All the staff was dispatched to the vaccination marquees. The working conditions are untenable”.
Mohand, 45, lives on Boulevard Mohamed V in downtown Algiers. Arrived at 7 a.m., he was able to get ticket number 26.
“My wife, my mother, and my sister-in-law also took their token,” he reveals to us. To be on the safe side, they returned home. I will let them know when there are only a dozen people left before me. I admit that the scramble this morning to snatch a ticket is not reassuring, at a time when contamination is at its maximum and the delta variant is wreaking havoc”.
In this health center, the vaccination started around 9.45 am People are waiting outside. Some preferred to take their distance out of caution.
“Why not set up larger spaces like the Safex, the Harcha room, or even the 5th July Stadium and vaccinate 24 hours a day, in order to break the chain of contamination?, Suggests a citizen.
“Vaccination is progressing very slowly at a time when the virus is killing more and more people. It’s a race against time. We must also involve private doctors in these operations in order to get by”.
Vaccination is progressing at a gastropod rate and in difficult conditions: crowded surroundings around health centers, suffocating heat under the marquees, flagrant lack of medical personnel, etc.
Old and sick people are reduced to waiting on the sidewalk for several hours before receiving their first dose. The question of accelerating vaccination under suitable conditions, in order to avoid passing the virus on the spot, is an acute one. There is danger in delay.
