COVID-19: Teachers and support staff to receive jabs from Wednesday

Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga has announced that the COVID-19 vaccination programme for educators will start on Wednesday, 23 June 2021 and will continue until Thursday 8 July 2021, a day before schools close to mark the end of the second term.

A total of 582 000 teachers and support staff are expected to be vaccinated over 10 to 14 days.

WHO DOES AND DOESN’T QUALIFY FOR THE COVID-19 VACCINE

Motshekga held a press briefing on Saturday, 19 June 2021 in Pretoria. During the briefing, she said the vaccination programme will include;

• Staff who transport children to and from schools;
• Staff who support the school feeding scheme (food handlers)
• Staff who do remote learning programmes (TV and Radio) and
• Staff of Teacher, Unions and other contracted staff who provide security, do cleaning and other functions in schools.

Angie Motshekga said there might be people who may not qualify to be vaccinated. These individuals may include but not limited to:

• Any person who had contracted COVID-19 in the past 30 days.
• Any person who was vaccinated using another vaccine (Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson, under Sisonke
• Any person who had received a flue vaccine in the past 14 days.

Despite several calls for schools to close, especially in Gauteng, Motshekga said they will remain open.

“We are not saying so insensitive to the concerns raised about rising infections. The position is that we continue to handle COVID-19 cases according to the differentiated strategy, on a province by province, school-by-school basis.

“While there are disruptions in the sector, the majority of our schools remain fairly stable. Our social partners and key stakeholders expressed the same view in our engagement earlier today (Saturday).”

During a press briefing, EFF leader Julius Malema also called for schools to be closed.

“Following the announcement of the Third Wave, under the rising number of infections we call on immediate closure of contact learning. There is no reason to force contact learning. Already there are rising infections amongst young people and children, disrupting schools. To ensure a fast move beyond the Third Wave, schools must be closed.”

READ: Third wave latest: Julius Malema calls for ‘all schools to be closed’