Teachers should be prioritized for vaccination against COVID-19: WHO

The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund on Monday said teachers should be given coronavirus vaccines first to ensure schools remain open in the Pandemic situation reports AFP.

“[It] is
vital that classroom-based learning continues uninterrupted,” the agencies said
in a statement, according to AFP. They urged countries to offer teachers and
other school staff the “Covid-19 vaccine as part of target population groups in
national vaccination plans”. The World Health Organization also urged countries
to inoculate children above 12 years of age with comorbidities.

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Other measures that are considered important for school performance include better classroom atmosphere, smaller classroom sizes, physical fitness and regular Covid-19 testing for staff and students.

“WHO Country Director for Europe Hans Kluge said the Pandemic had created one of the most serious educational disruptions in history.  Ensuring uninterrupted learning is critical to children’s education, mental health and social skills, so that schools can help equip our children to be happy and productive members of society”, said Kluge.

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In June, another joint statement from two UN agencies said that the closure of schools around the world had an impact on the physical and mental health of children. “While online education can ensure the continued learning of other children, these services do not replace human existence,” the organization said.

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In India again, the state government has asked countries to vaccinate all school teachers first before September 5th.

Many schools in India have been closed since March 2020. Schools in several provinces are expected to reopen this week, and some have been operating for a few weeks now.

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In India, 42,909 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours and majority of the cases are coming from Kerala, taking the total number of cases in the country to 3,27,37,939 since the outbreak in January last year. The figure increased by 380 to 4,38,210.