News24 reports that the Western Cape health department said on Wednesday that some 100,000 health workers would be the first to be offered a Covid-19 vaccine, but they would not be "guinea pigs" for the new initiative.  

Department head Dr Keith Cloete advised:  "We have good expertise and good regulatory bodies in this country.  They will only approve a vaccine that is safe, and has been used on humans."  This was indicated in reply to a question in the provincial legislature by Peter Marais of the FF Plus, who had asked whether health workers, who would be first to be offered the vaccine, were going to be the "guinea pigs" to see if it was safe.  Cloete also said a special vaccine advisory committee was working on the arrival of the vaccine, and they were planning optimistically for a 1 February start date.  At the same time, Premier Alan Winde said that if it would help people trust the vaccine, he was prepared to go first.  Cloete said having the vaccine did not mean masks could be tossed aside.  He added that until enough people had been vaccinated to curb the spread of the virus, they would still need to wear their masks, sanitise, and stick to social distancing.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jenni Evans at News24

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