The Gauteng Provincial Command Council has revealed that about 10 050 educators have been vaccinated and the province is expecting to increase capacity as it opens vaccination sites.
On Wednesday, across the nine provinces, the government launched its mass vaccination drive for educators, staff and school governing body personnel.
“So far 10 050 educators were vaccinated yesterday and we will increase our capacity as we pen up more vaccination sites. More than 125 934 educators and broader education staff in the province are expected to get vaccinated during the course of the programme,” said Gauteng health department acting head Nomsa Mmope.
She said the exclusion criteria included any person that contracted Covid-19 in the past 30 days, any person who was vaccinated using another vaccine (Pfizer or using J&J under Sisonke), any person who received the flu vaccine in the past 14 days.
The Department of Basic Education said it was satisfied with the first day of the vaccination programme in the basic education sector.
“More than 48 000 educators and staff were vaccinated on the first day on Wednesday, June 23. That’s according to a preliminary report from the Department of Health,” said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.
Today Motshekga and the leaders of all the five teacher unions were at Atteridgeville, Tshwane, to monitor the vaccination programme.
“I want to thank the teacher union leaders for the collaboration in making the vaccination of teachers a success. I am pleased with the turnout,” said Motshekga.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, said she did not have figures but as a union, they were happy with the turnout.
“I have seen pictures across the provinces and the vaccine roll-out programme is gaining traction.
’’However, we are concerned about the reports that some school governing body (SGB)-appointed teachers were turned away after being told they did not have enough doses. All teachers should be given the vaccine,” said Cembi.
Political Bureau