The University of Cape Town’s senate yesterday voted to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory at their campus from January 2022. A decision will now be made by the university’s council whether or not to adopt the policy.
The vote took place on Wednesday afternoon, with 183 votes in support of a mandatory vaccination policy. The number of people against the policy was just 32, while five people abstained from voting.
UCT spokesperson, Elijah Moholola says that the decision will likely be made at their next council meeting in October. He explains that most of the student population at UCT is now eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine. This led stakeholders to consider the situation if and when students would return to campus full time.
Moholola says, ideally, all members of the UCT campus community will have to be vaccinated. He explains currently a whole range of factors and considerations need to be looked at before the final decision is made. The ultimate goal is to have teaching take place on campus safely. This would be enabled by a large portion of the university community being vaccinated.
He says that the implications for unvaccinated students were not part of the proposal discussion. He explained that as it stands, the proposal speaks to being vaccinated before you are able to register. He notes that this is not the be-all and end-all with regard to the matter and adds that more elements will be explored during further engagements.
Currently more than 16,6 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the country with more than 8 million people being fully vaccinated against Covid-19.