Education Minister Priya Manickchand says her ministry will be guided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) on the roll out of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to children ages 5 to 11.
According to the Education Minister, some 84,000 primary and 27,000 nursery school children will be able to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine when the Ministry of Health begins distributing the vaccine to children ages 5 to 11. She made the announcement while at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), Kings-ton. Manickchand said that her ministry will be guided by the health ministry and will work along as they did for the distribution to adolescents ages 12 to 18.
On Friday’s COVID-19 Update, the Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony said that during this week, the ministry will commence preparations for the roll out of the vaccine to children 5 to 11 years, following its recent approval for use by the regulatory agencies in the United States.
Manickchand said that it would be in the best interest of all, if children, teachers and parents are vaccinated as this will allow the country to return to some form of normalcy. She added that messages will be sent out to parents to inform them of where the children can get their shot and assured that students will not be turned away from school if they are unvaccinated. The minister reminded that this is not the case currently, while informing that about 30 per cent of children ages 12 to 18 have been vaccinated. She noted that some of the children who are part of that cohort have completed school and that some primary school children who are 12 have been vaccinated.
Previously, the vaccine was only being used for the inoculation of children 12 years and over as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women. But the vaccine was made available to all members of the public at the start of November.
With regard to teachers becoming vaccinated, Manickchand stated that this has to be done because it is a matter of safety for the students. She disclosed that her ministry had made preparations for vaccines to be distributed to teachers when there were shortages and that her ministry has been told that just over 63 per cent of the teachers were vaccinated. In addition, Manickchand said that the vaccination policy is in effect and therefore teachers will have to be vaccinated to enter public buildings. She stressed that teachers have not been turned away from schools but they may be turned away from other places. The health ministry, she pointed out, is hoping to get to herd immunity and teachers should also be considerate of the safety of their students in classrooms. Hence the importance of the vaccine. “Getting vaccinated is not a bureaucratic issue anymore. It is now a matter of children’s safety.”
According to the minister, the reasons teachers should get vaccinated are not only to satisfy local COVID-19 protocols, but also for travel abroad to access higher education, to mark papers at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), to travel for conferences or even to visits to family. She reminded that vaccination against the COVID-19 disease is now a requirement for travel.
