The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union has criticised the government for delaying the procurement of a Covid-19 vaccine, describing it as a sign that the state is not in touch with reality.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize on Sunday announced plans to get a vaccine which included that the government was targeting 67% of the population in its strategy to establish herd immunity.
Mkhize said about 10% of people would be covered by the Covax programme. He said bilateral negotiations were in place which could see some vaccines arriving as early as February. The remaining 57% of the population will be targeted by the end of the year.
But Nehawu said negotiations for the vaccine should have started a long time ago.
“We share the sentiments of our federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, that government was caught napping while we are facing a deadly pandemic that has killed millions of people across the world. Because of the delay by government to start negotiations with vaccine manufacturers … we are now bearing the brunt of the scarcity of vaccines and having to wait for availability while other countries have begun with the rollout," said Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha.
“As Nehawu, we call for more transparency on the matter of the vaccine and urge government to move with speed in the procurement processes. Furthermore, we demand that government engages both Russia and China on emergency procurement of their vaccines for healthcare workers whilst waiting for the Covax delivery. If government was committed to saving lives and stopping infections they would have moved with speed to procure the vaccine.
"The delays prove that our government is not in touch with reality and unaware of the grave situation we find ourselves in as a country, including the strain suffered by our overstretched healthcare system”.
SA is facing a serious crisis as the number of infections have spiked exponentially over the past weeks.
Last week, SA recorded two spikes – a daily death count of 497 on December 29 and 18,000 positive infections on the last day of the year.
The spike in infections and deaths happened despite the government introducing an adjusted level 3 lockdown which closed beaches, banned the sale of alcohol and mass gatherings.
Economists and medical experts who have spoken to the Sowetan this week also lashed out at the government’s procurement plan, saying it was extremely late to deal with the crisis that the country is facing.
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