Qatar’s National Covid-19 Vaccination program has received a great response from the education sector of the country as 70 per cent of eligible students have received at least one dose of vaccine. The campaign has managed to vaccinate over 90 per cent of school staff so far.
Speaking in a Qatar TV programme yesterday, Dr Yousef Al Maslamani, the Medical Director of Hamad General Hospital said, “We received great response by employees of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, teachers and other staffers,” He also said that 70 per cent of children (from age 12 to 17) who are eligible for the vaccination has been vaccinated. “This is encouraging. I would like to thank parents for their support for the vaccine drive,” said Dr Al Maslamani.
He urged the people who have not been vaccinated to take vaccinations as soon as they can as the delta variant of the virus is causing serious problems in the country. As the new academic year in the country is set to begin on August 29 in public schools, a set of special regulations and preventive measures will be taken to ensure the safety of students and school staff. “The special measures include blended learning system with 50 per cent capacity of school with rotational attendance.” He said
He said that the vaccinations will help the county to gradually lift the restrictions which are imposed to prevent the further spread of Covid-19 in Qatar. “Vaccines are available in large quantities. We are vaccinating about 20,000 people in a day,” he answered about the availability of the vaccines in the country. General measures like wearing masks and maintaining a safe physical distance will be implemented in the education sector too.
He said that the parents and school staff are required to show the green status in the Ehteraz app for entering the school campus. “The school staff who could not take the vaccines will undergo weekly COVID-19 tests to protect them and others from the pandemic.”
The number of students is reduced to 50 per cent to ensure there is enough space between the students, he said about the decision to implement blended learning.
“The committee will suggest new measures as per the need in future based on COVID-19 situation in the country,” he said. The health indicators will be reviewed every week by the strategic committee to ensure the measures are intact.
“Children aged 12 and above have been eligible during recent months to get vaccinated in Qatar. With schools due to start at the end of August, it is important that as many children as possible are vaccinated in order to ensure a safe school environment,” said Dr Hana Khudair Saleh, the Community Medicine Specialist at Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) urging the parents to et their children vaccinated.
