Pretoria – Tshwane teachers who received their first jabs of the Covid-19 vaccine at various sites across the city today have given the long-overdue process the thumbs up so far.
This as the vaccination programme in Gauteng aimed at inoculating 125 934 educators, education support staff and officials at 60 vaccination sites in all regions officially kicked off on Wednesday.
The department said they believed that the vaccination drive would effectively begin the process of normalising schooling and mitigating the disruptive impact of Covid-19 in schools.
Something which was crucial given that as of Friday (June 18) the department announced that there were up to 4,700 Covid-19 cases in Gauteng schools, as infections in the provincial education sector had continued to rise.
Speaking on the first day of the vaccination drive at the Rabasotho Community Hall in Tembisa, Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi pleaded with the education sector, staff and non-staff officials to get their Covid-19 vaccinations.
Lesufi, who also received his own dose of the vaccine, was accompanied by Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and Deputy Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla.
He said the department "appreciated and endorsed" the decision to prioritise the sector as he alluded to the increasing number of infections in schools and the dire need to protect educators.
"Every learner comes from a family and goes back to that family, and you don't want the child to be carrying the virus to the family. If you can protect the children, you can protect everyone."
He said the department was so far happy with the progress made at all 60 sites in Gauteng as no major glitches had been reported, and those that did crop up were quickly attended to.
Meanwhile, at vaccination sites north of Tshwane teachers said although they were naturally anxious about getting their jabs, they felt that the process was long overdue.
John Kekana, 48, a teacher at Baxoxele Primary School in Soshanguve, said teachers had been waiting for a long time to be afforded the opportunity to get the jab. Kekana said they had heard of many infection cases reported just this week and they were relieved they would be protected.
"We had our doubts initially, but after my mother called to tell me how the vaccine was treating her I decided to join her."
"Perhaps it's all these issues with the expiry dates and other problems with other doses, but I just feel like the government is just too slow in getting these things to people considering all these new cases."
Noria Moima, 54, said she had even gone straight to the bathroom to check if her R1 coin would stick on the jab sight as some of the speculation surrounding the vaccine had stated.
"I didn't want to hear from other people so I decided to just give it a try, even in my scepticism, because I've had friends, relatives and colleagues get infected with the virus."
"I just feel like the government is dropping the ball and being slow with rolling out these vaccinations because had they started earlier, we wouldn't have lost so many of our colleagues and we're losing learners now."
Despite her concern at the rate of the roll-out, Moima said she felt more confident after getting her shot and would gladly encourage any hesitant educator to get it.
Pretoria News