Education sector vaccination extension will not affect school calendar, says dept
The Department of Education is expected to meet the Department of Health to request an extension of the sector’s vaccination roll-out as staff numbers climb.
As the deadline for the education sector vaccination roll-out draws nearer, the Department of Education has requested for an extension of the roll-out.
Department of Education Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told Rekord on Thursday that the extension would not affect the set reopening of schools on July 19.
“The Department of Health will brief us on the period of the requested extension, but this will not affect the reopening of schools at all,” Mhlanga said.
Mhlanga said the extension was prompted by increased number of staff from 582 564 to 789 554 consisting of educators, early childhood development practitioners and supporting staff at both private and public sector.
“The extension is important, because the idea is to get 100% of the people vaccinated but we do not have enough time to do that.”
The roll-out started on June 23 and was expected to finish this week.
Mhlanga said should the vaccination override the set date, it would not affect the sector negatively as the staff would receive the jabs on set appointments.
“Even when the schools are open, the programme will be better. When they (staff) are in school, we arrange transport so everyone goes at the same time. In that way, we are able to control movement of the people on the vaccination site.”
Mhlanga said the health department had indicated more vaccines would be allocated.
“They asked us which other people we can include in the vaccination programme. We did that and it pushed the number to 789 554. We will need more time for the vaccination.”
Mhlanga said the vaccination was going well, having vaccinated over 400 000 people thus far.
“The roll-out is going fine except when schools were forced to close. That caused our numbers to drop because people were in their homes, the numbers are not as big as they were when schools were open.”
Earlier this week, the provincial department reported that 9 113 educators and support staff, some with comorbidities, refused to be vaccinated.
Mhlanga reiterated the vaccines were safe.
“Education workers come into contact with a lot of people every day. This means they are at a high risk to their loved ones not meeting as many people as they. It is important to take the necessary steps to protect yourself by getting vaccinated.”
Mhlanga said the department was speeding up the vaccination not to hit vaccines’ expiry dates.
Last month, the department said that the J&J life span was extended to four-and-half months instead of three months.
“We are working against time; we cannot have people saying ‘no, I’ll just get it next time’. That cannot be, because at some point the vaccines will expire and become useless. We do not want that to happen. That is why it is important to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) July 7, 2021
Teachers and staff urged to get vaccinated, here are the reasons why you must do it; @DBE_SA @dbe_tv @dbetvnews @HealthZA. pic.twitter.com/6bvNpaLrAU
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) July 5, 2021
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