COVID-19: Nehawu welcomes procurement of 1.5 million vaccine doses for frontline workers
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has on Friday welcomed South Africa’s procurement of 1.5 million doses of vaccines for frontline workers.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Thursday announced the first 1 million doses would be delivered later this month from the Serum Institute of India, followed by an additional half a million doses in February.
The second wave of COVID-19 is spreading faster than the first wave. Nearly 21,000 cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours while there are more than 400 new fatalities.
The union’s Khaya Xaba said they would monitor the rollout process closely: “As Nehawu, we welcome the procurement of 1.5 million vaccines for frontline workers. We believe that this is a step in the right direction, and we wish the government worked extra hard to get more vaccines. We will work for hand in hand with the government to ensure that the process of vaccinating healthcare workers runs smoothly.”
AMBITIOUS PLAN
The Health Ministry is sticking to its guns and detailing an ambitious plan to vaccinate 40 million people against COVID-19 in the next 12 months.
Mkhize said we needed to vaccinate between 67% and 70% of the population to break the cycle of transmission.
Briefing MPs, Mkhize said they wanted to get that done in 12 months but immunizing 40 million people in a year was no small task.
The department is planning on rolling out over 300,000 vaccinations a day.
Finding the staff to pull that off is a challenge in and of itself, even in the best-case scenario that every vaccinator can inoculate 50 people a day, a small army of 6,300 vaccinators will be needed.
So where will these people come from?
“From clinical associates, community service doctors and nurses, contract nurses who are involved in other programmes on vaccinations, etc,” Mkhize said.
The department will also have to find teams of people in each province to ensure the vaccines are handled properly and that the cold chain integrity is maintained.
-EWN
In other news – Actress Jessica Nkosi spoils baby daddy TK Dlamini with expensive gifts on his Birthday
Mzansi stars Jessica Nkosi and TK Dlamini, are the cutest thing ever, and although they are trying to keep all aspects of rekindling their love hush-hush, we love those rare moments when they give us glimpses of their dates and their co-parenting skills.
Yesterday, TK celebrated his birthday, and Jessica decided to spoil him with a few expensive designer items and sis went all out. Learn More
