The Department of Basic Education aims to reach over half a million teachers and education support staff amid the relentless Covid-19 third wave.
THE DEPARTMENT of Basic Education has urged all educators and staff members to get vaccinated after extending the vaccination programme deadline to Wednesday.
Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the extension would enable the sector to vaccinate more people, as well as mop up where some sites experienced technical challenges resulting in delays.
According to the Department of Health, 437,386 educators and staff have been vaccinated since the roll-out began, from the initial target of 582 564.
Mhlanga said the sector has seen an increasing demand for the vaccines in recent days, and that provinces reported that more and more people were coming forward seeking to be vaccinated.
More than 200,000 people had been added to the list of staff to get vaccinated, and the numbers would improve significantly, especially as Limpopo would vaccinate as part of a plan to use Friday and Saturday to administer vaccines on their basic education personnel.
Mhlanga said that to address the challenges experienced, the Department of Health put in place measures to ensure that all eligible staff eventually get vaccinated. This included the use of a paper form for the recording of department staff that could not be found on the database on the Electronic Vaccination Data System.
The department wants to vaccinate educators while schools are still in recess.
