Police to start receiving their Covid-19 shots from Monday
The police vaccination campaign will be led by Police Minister Bheki Cele and national police commissioner Khehla Sitole in Soweto.
Minister of Police Bheki Cele. Picture: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach
Members of the South African Police Service (Saps) are next in the line of front line workers to get the Covid-19 jab.
This was announced on Friday by Police Minister Bheki Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba.
She said the vaccination campaign would begin on Monday led by Cele and national police comissioner Khehla Sitole in Soweto.
“The South African Police Service will kick off its vaccination drive for more than 180,000 of its members from Monday 5t July in Soweto,” Themba said.
“The Minister of Police Gen Bheki Cele and the national police commissioner will lead the vaccination programme. The pair will form part of the first group of police officers in the country and other Saps personnel who will get vaccinated on the day.”
Themba said there were 108 registered vaccination sites across the country where the men and women in blue will be inoculated against Covid-19.
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Police officers in South Africa are the next public servants in line for vaccinations after the inoculation of teachers.
This is according to the Health Department’s Dr Nicholas Crisp, who said this second major vaccination programme was now at an advanced stage of planning.
“It will be rolled out immediately upon the completion of the teacher [vaccination],” he said on Friday.
Police service vaccines next
Crisp said the Department of Health, which is managing the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, has already identified 145,000 officers and 36,000 civilians working in the police service.
Vaccination sites will be set up at police stations in collaboration with licensed pharmacies.
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Crisp announced that another vaccination programme will be aimed at the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and Correctional Services.
“SANDF has its own military health services and will be vaccinating their own members,” Crisp said.
Inmates, said Crisp, will be vaccinated through Correctional Services, while staff will receive their vaccines through the same programme run by the Department of Public Service and Administration with the Government Employees Medical Scheme (Gems).
“There are a lot of parallel processes in terms of volume of vaccines.”
