The COVID-19 vaccination of teachers and teaching staff could begin in two weeks

The vaccination of teachers and non-teaching staff at the Department of Education (DE) against COVID-19 could begin the week of Jan. 18, the Puerto Rico National Guard and the Department of Health anticipate.

This would happen in conjunction with the start of sub-phase 1b, said general assistant José Reyes.

The logistics will include the creation of seven vaccination centers, one in each educational region, where the in-house nursing staff will administer the vaccine. Reyes met today with the designated secretary Elba Aponte.

“The goal is to open the seven educational vaccination centers in the week of January 18 and deliver the first and second doses on or before February 28”Reyes stated in an interview with The new day.

The assistant general reported that Education has conducted a census among its teaching and non-teaching staff of approximately 40,000, of which approximately 36,000 replied that they were interested in receiving the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain that causes COVID. -19.

Dr. Iris Cardona, who from Health led the vaccination operation in Puerto Rico, described the Education component as “particularly important in planning a return to normalcy.”

Governor Pedro Pierluisi said yesterday that once teachers and non-teaching staff in education are vaccinated, the agency will be able to resume in-person classes.

“Once the teaching profession has been vaccinated, we can gradually and partially reopen the schools. In the best case, this should be done in early March “, established the first executive at a press conference in La Fortaleza.

Meanwhile, the department’s nursing staff has already begun to complete associated training to become certified as a vaccine supplier by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Reyes said. About 900 health workers will be distributed in the seven centers.

Reyes indicated that they will have meetings on Thursdays and Fridays with the organizations that group the mayors to determine ways in which the municipalities can support the operation, mainly by identifying facilities for setting up the vaccination centers exclusively for educational staff. .

Aponte, for his part, said the agency will be willing to fulfill its share of logistics. “We are going to prepare to have all the necessary criteria, but it depends on the flow of the arrival of the vaccines. It’s a chain, but that’s our goal, ”he emphasized.

Logistics also includes the vaccination of teaching and non-teaching staff in private schools in the country.

According to Reyes, the vaccination process for educators will take place at the beginning of phase 1-b, scheduled for mid-January. This sub-phase includes frontline workers and adults over 65 who do not live in a composite environment. The latter group is a population of about 400,000 people who could be vaccinated in about 150 community pharmacies with which the Ministry of Health has agreements, as well as in other facilities such as diagnosis and treatment centers, primary medical groups and primary health care centers or centers 330 .