KZN health department starts training workers on Covid-19 vaccine administration

The KwaZulu-Natal health department has begun training healthcare workers on the administration of Covid-19 vaccines.

The first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive in the country this week from India.

Health authorities in province said they were preparing for the arrival and rollout of the vaccines and were already training healthcare workers.

The department said that they would not be drawn on vaccine quantities but the province was still waiting to be briefed on the roll-out plan by the national Department of Health.

The department also said that they were confident in their preparations of training healthcare workers, including the vaccinators and pharmacy staff.

However, the nursing bodies said that training should be mandatory and they were urging government to educate members of the public and healthcare workers nationally on vaccines prior to the rollout of vaccinations.

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Mandatory training before vaccine roll-out

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) says that people may not be taking the vaccine based on lack of information or poor communication.

“We are asking the government to educate members of the public about the Covid-19 vaccine,:” said Denosa spokesperson Sibongiseni Delihlazo in an interview with eNCA.

Delihlazo said that healthcare workers would be among the first people to receive the vaccine when it reached the country and transparency would be needed.

“Openness is what is needed here. In fact, people may not be taking the vaccine based on poor information or lack of information,” said Delihlazo.

Delihlazo also said that it would be unfair for employers to force employees to take the vaccine when they themselves had not explained it to them.

“Just explain it, simple. Everybody wants to be safe from this pandemic and healthcare workers must be properly informed in order to communicate with their patients,” Delihlazo added.

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