Health Dept getting ready for workplace vaccinations, says DG

Business, labour and government recently agreed on a workplace policy that will see employees being vaccinated at their places of work.

The agreement was reached at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).

There has also been a growing call for teachers to be given priority in the vaccination drive.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has supported the call but admitted there is no rollout schedule to inoculate teachers.

Speaking at the Black Business Forum Summit on Wednesday, Buthelezi said the education sector will be given priority.

“Based on the information we have, there are about 15 million workers within occupational health sector sides, both in the formal and informal sector, excluding healthcare workers because we dealt with those earlier on in the vaccination programme.

“We are going through an exercise working with Nedlac to see who to prioritise based on vulnerability. All the workers are vulnerable but others are more vulnerable.

“People in Education, Public Service and Administration, Agriculture Forestry and Fishers and electricity and transportation should be prioritised to start with,” says Buthelezi.

He explained that government is targeting workers who are older that 40 in the workplace inoculation drive.

“We know that in most industries the retirement age is 60, so we are currently working with companies to bulk register these workers in the electronic vaccination database system.

“We also do have an investment model for those who are on medical aid, with some companies willing to pay for their workers and those that are uninsured with government taking responsibility.”

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