MEC Zolile Monakali confirms teachers in the province have been reporting in their numbers to get vaccinated and is confident all people in the education sector would be inoculated when schools re-open for the third term on July 19. 

Monakali was speaking alongside Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, who is currently visiting different provinces to monitor the rollout of the vaccine. The province is amongst those with a high number of active Covid-19 cases and has faced several closures of schools. Monakali and Motshekga have both expressed confidence in how the inoculation of educators and support staff is progressing, stating that this will assist in making schools ‘safe places’ for the benefit of learners and all those involved. Motshekga has meanwhile appealed to residents in the Northern Cape to observe Covid-19 lockdown level 4 regulations.

“Vaccination is voluntary nationally, but what we also noticed is that teachers who were scheduled to come on Wednesday, did not come. But on Friday, when they saw that their colleagues were not collapsing and dying, they came in big numbers. I think some people just wanted to see what happens to the first group. We are confident that they are now coming in numbers and the progress is moving much faster,” said Motshekga.

OFM News earlier reported that 582 000 people in the education sector are to be vaccinated nationally over 10 to 14 days. Over 3 000 in the province have so far been inoculated.

OFM News