Cape Town - As the vaccination roll-out programme in the Basic Education Department sector is expected to conclude today, the Department of Health has advised education staff who missed their appointments due to the violent protests and looting around the country will get another opportunity to be vaccinated.
The rollout programme for the sector was extended from last week until Wednesday (today) after additional doses for people became available.
The extension had enabled the sector to vaccinate more people but also to mop up where some sites experienced some technical challenges resulting in delays. The initial target was 582 564.
Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the department has received reports of disruptions over the past days at their vaccination sites in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal due to the unrest.
“The last count of educators and staff that have been vaccinated in the sector since the rollout began was at 480 000.”
National health spokesperson Popo Maja said the department was assessing the impact of affected vaccination sites and healthcare facilities such as clinics and hospitals and a list of affected vaccination sites would be made available with contingency plans.
He said the national vaccination programme was continuing across most provinces, with vaccines being safely distributed to operational sites.
“The government and the private sector are adopting a precautionary principle and will be temporarily closing some vaccination sites which have been damaged, or which may be at risk. Anyone who had been scheduled to be vaccinated at sites in districts or areas that are affected by the unrest are advised to defer their vaccination.
“The Electronic Vaccine Data System (EVDS) will automatically reschedule appointments for those unable to attend; it is programmed to reschedule up to two missed appointments,” said Maja.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has said that by the end of last week the province had vaccinated 45 579 staff members and more vaccinations had taken place over the past two days.
MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokesperson Kerry Mauchline said: “WCED officials have been working closely with the provincial department of health to ensure that appointments were scheduled and completed efficiently. We are most grateful to both for their hard work in making this happen in a relatively short time.”
Cape Times