​Qaqambile Mdledle
Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga has announced that the COVID-19 vaccination programme for teachers and school support staff will commence on Wednesday, 23 June 2021 and is expected to run until Thursday 8 July 2021.
A total of 582 000 teachers and support staff are expected to be vaccinated over the three-week period.
Minister Motshekga said although vaccination will be voluntary it is highly recommended, and teachers with comorbidities who declined to be vaccinated would not be punished.
"However, if they were still working from home they would not be allowed to continue doing so, and would be expected to return to the classroom," said Motshekga.
Three hundred thousand Johnson and Johnson doses have been earmarked for those employed in the education sector and more doses are expected to arrive this week.
Vaccinating teachers and support staff is the best hope of keeping schools open and will enable the education sector to start the process of mitigating the impact of the pandemic in the sector.
She also emphasized that even though teachers and supportive staff in the education sector will receive the vaccine, they must still continue to strictly adhere to the non-pharmaceutical measures to curb the spread of the virus.
Since the start of the national rollout of COVID-19 vaccination programme, more than two million people have been vaccinated either with the Pfizer vaccine or under the Sisonke Johnson and Johnson implementation study.