While vaccination is voluntary, the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), together with other teacher unions, has urged all eligible education sector staff to embrace this opportunity to be vaccinated.
The long-awaited Johnson & Johnson vaccine suffered some setbacks in the United States after contamination problems at a Covid-19 vaccine plant in Baltimore, which has had a knock-on effect locally.
The J&J vaccine became contaminated with part of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which is also produced at the plant.
The South African government is still awaiting an announcement by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on the manufacturing conditions at the United State factory, which froze the global release of doses of the J&J vaccine.
“We’re eagerly waiting for this to be sorted out so that we can start receiving the two million doses, which are ready for dispatch from the Aspen plant in Gqeberha.
“They’ve been waiting for the go-ahead from their mother company in the US,” said Deputy Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla, last week, who was keen for the matter to be resolved soon.
Naptosa has since welcomed the additional J&J vaccine doses that have been secured for the education sector.
According to Naptosa’s Executive Director, Basil Manuel, the Director-General of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) confirmed this at a meeting with the unions on Friday, 4 June 2021.
Manual said the doses were initially expected to arrive on Friday last week, undergo testing on Monday, with vaccination to commence on Wednesday, 9 June 2021.
However, according to independent media organisation, Bhekisisa, if the consignment of half a million J&J doses is cleared by the FDA, it will only arrive in South Africa by mid to late next week, with an expiry date of 28 June because this is “the only stock available”.
“The shots would therefore have to be used within a couple of weeks,” the publication said.
Bhekisisa quoted Nicholas Crisp, the Health Department Deputy Director-General, who said the Department of Basic Education (DBE) provided his department with staff numbers around 500,000, who need to be vaccinated, which matches up with the supply.
“Most importantly, they came up with a fast-moving mass vaccination plan for the staff at schools, which involved them driving employees to central points in districts,” Crisp told Bhekisisa.
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, meanwhile, has said it is planning to open an additional 21 new vaccination sites, as the country gears up to inoculate teachers.
According to the provincial government, KwaZulu-Natal will receive 110,400 out of the 500,000 J&J vaccine doses.
According to KwaZulu-Natal, management in their respective districts and circuits will guide educators regarding which sites to visit to be vaccinated.
“Some districts will open new sites, where sites don’t already exist, while others will have to designate their existing sites accordingly to accommodate the teachers,” the province said.
The provincial government is also exploring the possibility of opening the centres at weekends because teachers work during the week.
This how vaccination of teachers will work:
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