Teachers and staff in basic education urged to get vaccinated in the final week of the programme

Educators and staff in the basic education sector are urged to go to the vaccination sites to get their Johnson & Johnson vaccine injections.

The vaccination programme in basic education continues even after schools went on an early recess on Friday following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that the country would move to Level 4 of the COVID-19 risk adjusted strategy.

More than 333,000 teachers and support staff have since been vaccinated since the campaign started on 23 June 2021.

Phase  1  targeted  300,000;  to  be  vaccinated  within  the  first  10  days  of  the programme. This target was based on the number of does allocated of the Johnson& Johnson vaccine to the sector.

By the end of Day 1 of the sector’s vaccination programme, the Basic Education sector had vaccinated a total of 48,000 of the Phase 1 target.

By 01 July 2021 (9 days since the start of the vaccination programme), over 100% (300,052) of the Phase 1 target had been met across the nine Provinces or Within 9 days of commencing Phase 1, a total of 300,052 educators and non-teaching staff had been vaccinated.

The Basic Education sector received an additional 289,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. These additional doses, enables the sector to reach its overall target of vaccinating 582,564 educators and non-teaching staff.

The Basic Education sector will continue to administer the remaining doses of the vaccine to cover the remaining 282,512 staff. In addition, support staff from independent schools, food handlers, screeners, cleaners and ECD practitioners will be included in the roll out programme.

The Department urges all educators and staff to follow the schedules in each district in order to ensure a smooth roll-out of the programme.

Source: Government of South Africa