More than 400k J&J jabs to be set aside for teachers, MPs told
The Department of Health has confirmed that more tha 400 000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be set aside for the country’s teachers.
Teachers’ unions have been calling for the sector to be prioritized during the vaccination rollout.
Technical Adviser for the Department of Health, Dr Aquina Thulare, says on the more vaccines expected to arrive in the country soon.
The initial consignment will be set aside for teachers.
Thulare briefed Parliament's health committee on Thursday.
“In terms of what is happening for public service workers, we have identified basic education as a sector that needs to be prioritised as matter of urgency.
“What has happened is that when we were looking for how we can source vaccines Johnson & Johnson approached the department indicating that they have 479 000 vaccines that were available and that could be made available for South Africa, so as education was identified, we believed that this is the sector that could be prioritised.
“The basic education sector is ready to execute the plan and vaccine sites have been identified.”
She also confirmed that more vaccines are expected to land in the country on Friday.
“In terms of the weekly schedule we will be receiving 300 000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine tomorrow, and next week we will be receiving 1,2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson. We are receiving 636 000 doses of Pfizer on the 14th.
“We will be receiving another 1,274 million Pfizer doses on the 21 June and from the COVAX, 1,39 million doses will arrive on 28 June.”
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