Teachers over 50 first to be vaccinated
Teachers who are over 50 years of age will be the first to be vaccinated against Covid-19, the government said yesterday.
The vaccination is voluntary.
The Ministry of Health launched the vaccine targeting tutors at Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters with the Secretary Nancy Macharia being the first to get the jab.
Vaccination is scheduled to commence on Monday. Macharia said that so far, 41 teachers had died of Covid-19.
“Today (yesterday) is a day of hope, we can now start rolling the clock forward in confidence that with the vaccination we shall attend to our learners more confidently than we have done, even as we keep complying with the Covid-19 containment measures,” said Macharia.
She lauded the government for recognising teachers as a priority in the vaccination drive.
“The government has made the right decision to protect over 330,671 teachers working in public schools and 158,000 in private schools,” said Macharia.
She said teachers come into contact with million of learners in primary and secondary schools, most of whom may not show any symptoms of the virus even when they are infected.
Macharia also urged government to also consider the over 227,000 teachers who will be supervising and invigilating national examinations in about a week’s time.
Taskforce for vaccine deployment chairman Dr Willis Akhwale, who launched the exercise, said globally there are limited stocks of vaccines and with the rollout, the government has no choice but prioritise groups who are at more risk with the aim to save lives
