The Ministries of Education and Health have scrapped plans of vaccinating learners against COVID-19 in school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over 16 million learners aged 5 to 17 years were supposed to get vaccinated against COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Previously, the ministries had planned to roll out mass vaccination campaigns in schools between May and June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, weeks since the campaign was supposed to start, officials from the respective ministries say the vaccination process will not take place at the schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Minister of State for Primary Education, Dr. Joyce Moriku Kaducu says vaccination of children under the age of 18 years needs to be observed by a parent or guardian which makes vaccination at school very difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ministers say the government is still discussing how effectively vaccination of learners can be carried out in a safe way. They also denied reports that vaccination in schools had started. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This comes at a time when some, schools had already drafted what they termed as COVID-19 Vaccination consent forms which were sent to parents. The forms have already generated anxiety among parents who were against vaccination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vaccination of staff and learners has been an area of contention since the exercise was started last year in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
550,000 teachers from different institutions of learning were targeted for vaccination, but to date, only 32 percent are fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to vaccination, the two ministries are engaged in a discussion of the possibility of revising the current COVID-19 School Standard Operating Procedures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the increase in COVID-19 cases, the ministries had concluded talks that would have seen the suspension of the mandatory wearing of masks by learners and the removal of the two-meter social distancing rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, with cases increasing, Dr. Kaducu says they are still discussing how these measures can be handled given the current situation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ministries of Education and Health have scrapped plans of vaccinating learners against COVID-19 in school. Over 16 million learners aged 5 to 17 years were supposed to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Previously, the ministries had planned to roll out mass vaccination campaigns in schools between May and June. However, weeks since the campaign was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":536,"featured_media":25693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31,119],"class_list":["post-31241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","tag-uganda-news"],"yoast_head":"\n