The Western Cape government says it will continue to engage with health practitioners in the province as it prepares for the arrival of the Johnson& Johnson vaccine this week.
It is expected that the province will receive 15 000 of the initial 80 000 doses to be distributed throughout the country.
The jabs will be administered as part of a trial phase before a large scale roll-out. Provincial Health Minister Nomafrench Mbombo says chiropractors and natural medicine practitioners are some of the health care providers that need to be engaged around the coronavirus.
“In as much as some people might not understand what are modalities from acupuncture, Chinese medicine, natural paths but people do make use of them. They’ll go to the complementary medicine whether it’s for steaming or a supplement and all of those people do make use of this.”
Experts in the field of ancient medicine regimes, such as Chinese medicine and acupuncture, say the vaccine must be used.
Chiropractors, who are trained to ensure optimal body functioning by using spinal adjustments to relieve pain in joints and muscles, were hit extremely hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Constant Grove says many had to close their practices.
“We had to find new premises to work from and work under incredibly strict and stringent protocols which we still do and we did beforehand. For our profession itself, it’s been hard finding our place in how can we help with this going forward. We do not treat the virus; we do not treat patients with it, just the incidental findings of it happening in our practices.”
Mbombo says the province will continue with its public engagement and information drive in the run-up to the vaccine roll-out.
South Africa has secured 9.9 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine:
