The KwaZulu-Natal department of education has announced a temporary suspension of the vaccine rollout at sites in three of its districts in the province, but says there is no need to panic. 

Spokesperson for the department Muzi Mahlambi said the three affected districts are uMkhanyakude, eThekwini and Pinetown.

“All educators that were supposed to be vaccinated tomorrow, Monday, and on Tuesday, we are appealing to them to go back to school and not go to the site where they were supposed to go as it had been planned,” Mahlambi said. 

He explained that the suspension was due to the depletion of the doses that the department had received. He said the doses were depleted last week.

“There is no need to panic. All teaching and non-teaching staff will get their chance to be vaccinated. It’s only that we are processing the newly acquired doses that we have received from [the department of] health.

“The communication will be issued during the course of the week as to when the programme will resume in these affected three districts,” Mahlambi said.

KwaZulu-Natal's target is to vaccinate about 127,000 employees in the province's education department.

TimesLIVE