Govt mulls vaccinating exam-year students, teachers

 

The government is holding discussions on vaccinating examination-year students against Covid-19 to pave way for the gradual reopening of schools, following the Drug Control Authority’s (DCA) decision to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people aged 12 and above.

The discussions include vaccinating their teachers and the school’s support staff as well.

During a webinar hosted by the Oxford & Cambridge Society of Malaysia last night, National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin had asked him whether Form 5 and Form 6 students could be “vaccinated first”.

Khairy said: “That makes a lot of sense because I think kids who are facing public exams really need to get back to school to prepare for their exams.

“So, we are working out something with the Ministry of Education to focus on exam years first, to inoculate the teachers, the support staff at schools, as well as the exam-year students, now that Pfizer has been approved for 12- to 18-year-olds, as quickly as possible.”

On a related matter, Khairy said an announcement will be made soon regarding the fifth phase of the NIP that would target teenagers.

Prior to the DCA decision on June 15, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was only approved for use for people above 18 years old, pending more data on whether the vaccine is still safe and effective for younger people.

It is currently the first and only Covid-19 vaccine approved for use in teenagers in Malaysia.

Khairy said that in Form 5 alone, Radzi had informed him there are 357,000 students and 47,000 teachers.

To facilitate the inoculations, he said vaccination tents may be set up at schools.

“The kids show up on the first day, and there is a vaccination tent there. They go in, they get vaccinated, and off you go,” he said.

He did not mention whether the plans would see Form 5 and Form 6 students being vaccinated alongside other priority groups currently being vaccinated, or simply receive their vaccines earlier than other teenagers.

Currently, the NIP is divided into four phases.

The first phase targets lawmakers and frontliners, especially healthcare workers treating Covid-19 patients.

The second phase targets people above 60 years old, people with disabilities or chronic diseases and frontliners who have missed out on the first phase of the NIP.

The third phase targets the rest of the adult population, namely people above 18 years old who have yet to be vaccinated.

There is also the newly-created fourth phase that started yesterday, which is aimed at containing outbreaks by vaccinating people working in critical economic sectors during the lockdown.

The second and fourth phases are currently being run simultaneously.

Labuan is also prioritised under the fourth phase of the NIP due to a growing outbreak there involving the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) of the disease.

This would see enough Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines delivered by mid-July to vaccinate every adult on the island. - Mkini

✍ Credit given to the original owner of this post : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

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