Vaccination roll-out programme opens for Journalists

Following the call for Journalists to be prioritised for vaccination drive in the country, finally members of media will receive their first jab, as the joint partnership between South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) and Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) through Health Department, announced opening of the vaccination rollout programme for Journalists.

SANEF in partnership with GCIS called on all journalists to get vaccinated following the Health Ministry’s announcement on Friday, 30 June 2021, that the media sector can go get vaccinated at their nearest vaccination site.

“This media vaccination programme caters for all age groups of the sector including the under 35-year-old journalists in newsrooms around the country. Journalists above 34-60 years of age are still urged to get vaccinated and self-register on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) due to their eligibility,” a statement read.

“The government has concluded a bulk upload for registration of all journalists who have responded to call to submit their details through the GCIS facilitated process, and emails will be sent out today to all individual journalists and media houses to confirm their registration on EVDS. Individual SMSes will not be sent through bulk registration system.

We thank the media sector from the mainstream, to community, online/digital, broadcasting, to print as well as freelancers for participating in the registration process which took less than a month,” statement further read.

According to Sanef’s Hopewell Radebe, provinces such as KwaZulu Natal and Limpopo are already taking advantage of the role the media plays in society by vaccinating journalists and ensuring that they help encourage young and old in the country to voluntarily participate in the national vaccination project.

“This is also helping dispel misinformation and myths about the efficacy of vaccines.

The partnership between SANEF, GCIS and the health department has proven that a lot can be achieved through cooperation,” revealed Radebe.

He also encouraged all journalists and the media fraternity to vaccinate, in bid to assist the government to move swiftly onto the next priority sectors.