Business Insider SA reports that SA’s teachers and support staff will be transported to dedicated vaccination sites to receive the J&J Covid-19 shot, under a plan agreed between the departments of health and basic education.

Their details will be checked against three databases, one each for those on the government payroll, those from independent schools, and those appointed by school governing bodies, which stand ready. A flight has also been booked to transport doses from the USA – but the vaccine has not yet been released. The US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) had been due on Friday to give its verdict on cross-contamination at a plant in Baltimore, which affects vaccines due for and already in SA. As of Monday, South African regulators were still waiting. In the meanwhile, detailed plans have been made for the rapid inoculation of educators. In total some 500,000 people will be targeted, and not just teachers but "the whole basic education sector". The hope is to give everyone the single-shot J&J vaccine by early July, so that they will develop full immunity by the end of that month, when schools are now due to resume normal operation. The "dedicated education sector intervention" will make teachers the second special group to receive vaccines, after healthcare workers.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Phillip de Wet at Business Insider SA
• Read too, KZN quick off the block in race to jab teachers, on page 6 of Sowetan of 7 June 2021

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