The Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) resolved at a Board meeting this week to support President Ramaphosa’s intention to set up a task team that will undertake broad consultations on making vaccination mandatory for “specific activities and locations,” and to make recommendations to Cabinet on a fair and sustainable approach to vaccine mandates.
“As the President pointed out in his speech, vaccination is vital to saving the lives of South Africans, but they are also vital also to the return of our economy to full operation, to the resumption of travel, and to the recovery of vulnerable sectors like tourism and hospitality. The Association therefore welcomes the growing number of organisations that are already making COVID vaccinations mandatory in their workplaces and calls on all institutions to, as far as safely possible, adopt a similar position, in line with Department of Labour requirements*,” said Chairman of the Board, André Joseph.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Association, Dr Dumisani Bomela, adds, “When the benefits of vaccinating are considered, along with data from the rest of the world and increasingly from our own facilities that shows that almost all hospital admissions for COVID are either unvaccinated or are partially vaccinated, there can be no doubt that it is to everyone’s advantage that we all take the step of vaccinating. I am proud to say therefore that our organisation, though a small employer by national standards, is taking the principled step of adopting a vaccination mandate as a contribution to South Africa’s recovery from COVID.”
“Vaccinations, along with non-pharmaceutical interventions like social distancing, sanitizing, and masking, remain the most effective protections against COVID and whatever mutations now exist, and that may yet arise,” Bomela concludes.
*See https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2021/08/23/to-vaccinate-or-not-to-vaccinate-mandatory-covid-19-vaccination-in-the-workplace/
