WeeklySA_AdminRETHINK: Healthcare group makes about-turn
By Staff reporter
Discovery employees who did not want to be vaccinated should rest at ease as their rights would not be violated, Discovery Health said yesterday. In the past weeks, the healthcare and financial services announced its plan to make coronavirus vaccination mandatory for staff beginning from next year.
More than 14 000 Discovery Health clients have died from COVID-19 related illnesses. Sanlam has also intimated to join the bandwagon with plans to make vaccination mandatory. In the midst of this whole rigmarole, Cosatu cautioned companies from compelling and threatening workers to be vaccinated against their will.
Matthew Parks, Cosatu parliamentary spokesperson is not discouraging employees not to be vaccinated but warned against companies infringing on workers’ rights. Vaccinations are not compulsory and employers should not force their staff to take the jabs, he said. Parks said the employers did not own employees and employees had rights enshrined in the constitution, adding that employers had no unlimited power to force employers to force employees to vaccinate.
On the one hand, China’s Sinovac Biotech will trial its Covid-19 vaccine in children and adolescents in South Africa as part of a global study, Reuters reports. The study will evaluate the efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of the CoronaVac vaccine on children and adolescents, aged 6 months to 17 years, the firms said in a statement. The global trial will enrol 14,000 participants across Chile, the Philippines, Malaysia, Kenya, including 2 000 in South Africa, they said.
The trial has been approved by South African drugs regulator Sahpra, and the first child was due to be vaccinated at the MeCRU Clinical Research Unit based at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University today.
