The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) says there’s growing enthusiasm among health care workers now that government has rolled out the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Earlier this week,  the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union spoke of frustrations among health care workers after government halted the roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine which it had procured from India.

Reactions to the suspension of COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca roll-out

DENOSA Communications Manager Sibongiseni Delihlazo says there is restored confidence in government among health care workers because there’s no more confusing messaging.

“Indeed, indeed, there’s quite some optimism right now. This was happening for the first time. There were quite a lot of mixed messages that were doing the rounds on social media. There were some conspiracy theories and also some religious leaders had expressed some doubts and that was always bound to have an effect on the feelings of health care workers.”

Limpopo receives seven thousand doses of Johnson & Johnson

Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba has confirmed that the province has received 7 160 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccines. 1 911 new coronavirus infections have been reported in South Africa in the past 24-hour reporting cycle, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 1 500 677.

151 more people have succumbed to COVID-19 related complications, putting the national death toll 48 859. The recovery rate now stands at 1 406 907.

Meanwhile, the vaccination of health care workers in Limpopo has officially started, with MEC Ramathuba being among the first to receive the Johnson and Johnson jab. The vaccination campaign has been rolled out at Polokwane Provincial and Mankweng hospitals.

Ramathuba says she wants to see more health care receiving the vaccine.

“The fact that I have been given an opportunity to be able to be vaccinated before I could take through all the team that I work with, you can see that they are here and mainly because there has been doubt that this vaccine is it the real vaccine. So one of the reasons was to say come and get vaccinated.”

Health workers in Limpopo receive Johnson and Johnson vaccine