Johannesburg - Spirits were high at the Johannesburg Prison as inmates received their Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday morning.
The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Ronald Lamola, was amongst the first in the sector to receive the jab on Tuesday morning, as the Department of Correctional Service (DCS) began to roll out vaccinations.
Lamola said the overcrowding in prisons has been a concern since the outbreak of Covid-19, and the vaccine could not have come at a better time to prevent the spread.
"It is important to vaccinate prisoners just as it is important to vaccinate ordinary civilians. Correctional centres are at a high risk for communal diseases and prisoners can be carriers of the virus, exposing those they interact with," he said.
Lamola highlighted that prisoners have to appear before the court regularly, and as possible carriers of the virus they would be a risk to the society at large.
"We encourage all our inmates to participate in taking the vaccine to protect themselves and those they come into contact with. So far, none of our inmates have rejected the vaccine."
The minister highlighted that the correctional service sector had to vaccinate a total number of 8 000 people per day across the country by August 10 to reach the target set by the Department of Health.
The Acting Minister of Health, Mmamoloko Kubayi, said the Johnson & Johnson vaccines were allocated to all officials and inmates in the DCS to avoid the administration of the Pfizer vaccines’ second jab.
"We are happy to announce that we have reached our 200 000 vaccine target in the country. We would have hoped to pass this last week, but the looting in parts of the country affected the vaccination roll-out. I continue to worry about the aftermath of this, because of the health protocols that were disregarded during these events," she said.
Kubayi urged those who were involved in the looting to present themselves for screening and testing to avoid the risk of spreading the coronavirus unknowingly.
She then applauded the partnership with the DCS, which was working very well, and said she looked forward to the day everyone in this sector had been vaccinated.
Lester Abrahams, who has been in prison for the past eight years, said he was thrilled to be receiving the vaccination.
"We, as inmates, live together and there is no real social distance. We gladly welcome any chance to combat the spread of the virus amongst us. We've grown to become family in the prison cells, and will do anything to protect each other," Abrahams said.