The government’s plan to vaccinate almost half-a-million teachers with the coronavirus shot of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) by end-June hangs in the balance as it awaits a decision by US authorities whether to lift its hold on the jabs.
It emerged on Friday that J&J had offered SA an additional consignment of 480,000 shots apart from the 31-million doses it had already secured and that the government had hoped to receive at the weekend and start administering to teachers on Wednesday.
Due to a delay in the US Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) decision on the shots, which had been expected on Friday, they have yet to leave the US.
There is also now a question about the feasibility of using the consignment, as the vaccines have been thawed and must be used by June 28, said health department deputy director-general Nicholas Crisp.
Once in SA the vaccines will need to be cleared by the national control laboratory in Bloemfontein before they can be distributed to provinces for dispensing to teachers in the public and private sector.
The FDA’s concerns over manufacturing conditions at Emergent BioSolutions, which makes a key ingredient used by J&J’s contract manufacturers, has disrupted supply chains worldwide and put an estimated 100-million doses on hold.
Unions say it is vital for teachers and support staff to be vaccinated as quickly as possible to minimise any further disruption to the school year, and to free parents from the burden of providing childcare for younger learners.
“There is a symbiotic relationship between schooling and the economy. Education must be a priority area, because if learners are not at school it impacts on everyone else,” said SA Democratic Teachers Union secretary-general Mugwena Maluleke.
Sadtu and other teacher unions have made the case to the government that teachers should be prioritised for vaccination because they have a relatively high exposure to Covid-19 and the sector plays a vital role in the economy.
Maluleke said about 396,000 public sector teachers and support staff as well as an estimated 100,000 private sector educators can be loaded onto the electronic vaccine data system. Vaccinations can be provided at schools and district offices, he said.
Basil Manuel of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa) said vaccinating teachers is essential if full-time primary school education is to resume in July.
Primary schools without adequate resources to maintain social distancing have not provided full-time education since the start of SA’s coronavirus crisis in March 2020, with a devastating impact in poor communities.
The system of rotational classes is due to end on July 26, when the third term begins for public schools.
“We are sitting with a cohort of grade twos that can hardly read. That is a crisis. If we don’t consolidate reading in lower primary school they are lost for the next 10 years,” said Manuel.
Cosatu’s parliamentary co-ordinator, Matthew Parks, said the trade union federation is disappointed with the slow pace of the government’s vaccination programme, which has so far reached 1.3-million people.
Vaccinating the entire basic education sector could potentially be achieved within a fortnight as educators work in contained, clearly defined settings, he said.
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