DURBAN – The KwaZulu-Natal Education and Health departments will this afternoon discuss the possibility of extending the teachers’ Covid-19 vaccine rollout programme.
This comes after the Department of Basic Education (DBE) announced that the vaccination programme for the education sector, which was due to end on July 8, was extended for a few days to July 14.
The reason for the extension was to allow the education sector staff, who were not able to vaccinate by July 8 due to early closure of schools including teachers who travelled home to other districts.
KZN Education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi would not be drawn further on the details of the discussion, but confirmed the matter was on their radar with the looming Wednesday deadline for provincial teachers to be vaccinated for Covid-19 being affected by the spate of riots in the province.
Mahlambi said the issue was on the cards as one of the topics under discussion later on Monday afternoon.
“We as a department would be guided by Health on the possibility of extending the deadline.”
IOL reported today that to fast-track the vaccination and ensure that the drive works more efficiently, the DBE and Department of Health have agreed to:
- The use of paper forms for the recording of the DBE staff who cannot be located on the DBE database.
- For the DBE project, paper records can now be used in a controlled environment.
- DBE staff to be present at all sites– their role would be to confirm individuals who come for vaccination that are from the Education sector and are therefore eligible for vaccination.
- If the person is not located on the database but can be confirmed by a DBE staff member, the person can be vaccinated using the paper form process.
THE MERCURY