Healthcare workers have been advised to discuss the benefits and possible side effects of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine with youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17.
The Health Department has also been at pains to stress that the jab was safe for girls in this age group who’d been impregnated.
From Wednesday, youngsters are allowed to start registering and lining up for the jabs and they don’t need their parents’ consent to do so.
The Health Department said that young people across the world were already getting the vaccines, and so parents in South Africa did not need to be too concerned about their children getting the jab.
The department was also urging women who were pregnant, to get their jab, as it was safe to be inoculated at any stage.
South Africa has a major teenage pregnancy crisis. In Gauteng alone more than 23,000 girls were impregnated between April 2020, and March this year.
The Health Department’s Nicholas crisp said that they were hoping that children and parents would visit vaccine centres after school on Wednesday.
“I do know that we’ve been getting an increasing number of requests and demands from parents sent directly to us and our team,” he said.
The Health Department also wants parents to have an open discussion with their children about the benefits of getting the jab warning, they need to guard against the dangers of misinformation.
-EWN
In other news – Former Uzalo actor TK Dlamini (Mastermind’s) weight gain shocks the internet (PHOTO)
He may be gone from Mzansi’s most-watched show, but he’s still hard to forget. Uzalo’s much loved criminal, Mastermind, or real name TK Dlamini is making waves on social media after pictures of his weight gain shocked many of his fans.
He was spotted clubbing in Khayelitsha, Cape Town this past weekend with some of Mzansi’s biggest names, DJ Tira and Focalistic. Learn More
