Department initially aimed to finish by today, 7 July but the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, has now said that they'll finish by Friday for the latest.
She says by close of business yesterday, more than 400 000 teachers and staff in the sector have been vaccinated.
I do hope that by the end of the day, we would have reached 550 000 of the teachers that we have vaccinated.
Discovery Health Chief Commercial Officer has also said that this week, they have vaccinated more than 10 000 teachers and staff in the Basic Education Sector.
The Department aims to vaccinate around 583 000 people by Thursday 8 July. Vaccination rollout for the sector commenced on 23 June.
More than 16 000 teachers are on special leave due to having comorbidities. Department wants to encourage these teachers to get vaccinated and quite possibly have them back in schools.
First phase of vaccine rollout is said to have gone very well. However, some delays with independent schools, janitors and other staff vaccinations. Those individuals who are not on the the Personal and Salary System (PERSAL) system but work in the school environment were only loaded on to the vaccination system recently.
There were also around 20 000 teachers who tested positive during this vaccination period and could then not be vaccinated. The Department plans to vaccinate them once school reopen. Along with these individuals are those who received flu vaccines and those who are pregnant.
We are going to reconcile all those figures to say of those people who can't be vaccinated, how many are there and then make plans as to how and when we are going to vaccinate them.
"Most provinces are doing mostly well," the Minister said.
The Department has made it their mission to dispel any myths which results in people hesitating and refusing to vaccinate. Some individuals have religious reasons behind their refusal, which the Minister says they respect.
Basic Education Minister Media Briefing providing sectoral update on Basic Education Vaccination Programme https://t.co/wAxtsHaiqN
— Dep. Basic Education (@DBE_SA) July 7, 2021
