Men and Women shoved each other in a desperate effort to get the jab in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
The chaos occurred on the first day of vaccination of teachers and education staff against Covid-19.
Hundreds of people, some in masks, may have put themselves at risk when they jostled to get the jab.
In their desperation to get vaccinated some people completely ignored social distancing norms.
Fears are rising that the vaccination centre at Gonyane Primary School in Bloemfontein may become a superspreader after more people than expected turned up.
Commenting on whether adequate preparations were made, a health department official said: “We didn’t expect this.”
A man in the queue shouted: “We have been here since 7am”.
He said the slow verification and vaccination process was the reason people had abandoned social distancing.
“We are hungry now,” said another.
Free State health department spokesperson, Mondli Mvambi, said while people were eager to get vaccinated it was not a “do or die” situation. He said the vaccination drive will continue for up to 10 days.
South Africa is in the throes of the third wave with daily confirmed Covid-19 cases hovering above 11 000.
The latest daily death count was recorded at 297.
At the weekend basic education minister, Angie Motshekga, announced that just over half a million teachers and education staff would be vaccinated in two weeks beginning on Wednesday.
