Jabs for teachers will be fast-tracked

Vaccinations for education sector begin next week Shots available at dedicated sites

In one of its steps to stabilise education for millions of children amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the government is proceeding at a brisk pace with plans to vaccinate teachers.

Vaccinations of those working in the education sector will begin next week with all teachers at public and private schools, as well as administrative and support staff, getting jabs regardless of their age.

The programme is critical to ensure the smooth functioning of schools disrupted by the pandemic, which saw them close for long periods or operate on a rotational teaching basis. Studies have found that this has been detrimental to children and may have lifelong consequences.

Details of the vaccination plan for the sector were outlined on Thursday by department of health technical adviser Aquina Thulare at a parliamentary committee meeting, which was also attended by acting health minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane who took over the portfolio after Zweli Mkhize stepped down on special leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the Special Investigating Unit into an irregular communication contract.

Thulare said the health and basic education departments were ready to execute plans with a total of 499,000 people to be targeted over 10 days at dedicated sites.

Provinces had confirmed that they will be able to administer the allocations of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines, which would be distributed on June 22. Vaccination would begin immediately thereafter.

Thulare told MPs that 1.5-million doses of the J&J vaccine would be available for the vaccination of the education sector. A total of 300,000 doses would be delivered on Friday and a further 1.2-million doses next week.

She said that no scheduling for teachers would be necessary on the health department’s electronic vaccination data system for registration. Local planning between the health department and the department of basic education would link schools to vaccination sites.

The head of the department’s

vaccination rollout programme, Nicholas Crisp, said the 1.5million J&J vaccines that would be delivered over the next week had already thawed and had to be used rapidly. This was partly why the education sector had been prioritised. He expected between 405,000 and 410,000 of the targeted 499,000 in the sector to be vaccinated.

He noted that because of delays in getting supplies, the target of completing the vaccination of over-60s by end-June would not be met. It was possible that 60% of the target would be reached by the end of June. The total number of vaccinations was expected to exceed 2-million by the end of Thursday.

Thulare said planning for the vaccination of the security cluster was advanced and could proceed after the vaccination of the basic education sector had been completed. This would include the police and members of the SA National Defence Force and correctional services.

Separately, Kubayi-Ngubane noted that after her meeting with provincial MECs of health, it had been decided that there was no need to establish field hospitals at this stage — even though SA was in a third wave of the pandemic — as they had not been used to full capacity during the first and second waves.

One of the concerns about the vaccination rollout was that clinics should not lose capacity by nurses being sent to vaccination sites as this would affect the delivery of primary health care.

She indicated a walk-in protocol would be developed to ensure that vaccination sites did not become sites of infection as uncontrolled numbers of people who did not have an appointment descended on them to be vaccinated.

Regarding Mkhize, senior parliamentary legal adviser Siviwe Njikela advised the health committee that it would not be a breach of the sub judice rule for Mkhize to appear before the committee to answer questions about the irregular R150m Digital Vibes contract. Health committee chair Sibongiseni Dhlomo said he would discuss the matter with parliamentary office-bearers. Njikela said parliament had a constitutional duty to hold the executive to account.

NO SCHEDULING FOR TEACHERS WILL BE NECESSARY ON THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT VACCINATION DATA SYSTEM FOR REGISTRATION

499,000 people in the education sector are being targeted for vaccinations

60% of those over 60 years could be reached by end of June