Teachers should be ‘priority’ for jabs

A SENIOR Calderdale politician has backed calls for teaching staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a priority group.

Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, Coun Adam Wilkinson told Calderdale Health and Wellbeing Board he hoped schools would be allowed to return to the classroom as soon as possible.

“It is not likely in the short term because of the new variant of COVID-19 but one of the challenges is making staff feel safe and there is a case for prioritising teachers,” he said.

Coun Wilkinson (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) said he accepted in early years settings the transmission among very young children was not as much of a danger as older children, but nonetheless staff came into contact with large groups of children and two-year-olds did not know how to socially distance and did not wear masks.

Leader of the council, Coun Tim Swift (Lab, Town) said he understood why Coun Wilkinson had raised the point and it would continue to be raised nationally.

Kate Horne, Calderdale COVID Vaccination Programme manager, said that all care home residents and staff in the borough had been offered COVID-19 vaccinations.

“In terms of our over 80s we have achieved really good coverage and we are working down the priority cohorts.

“Among West Yorkshire, Calderdale is one of the highest performers, we are getting good feedback, including from the Boots centre,” she said.

In Calderdale, health teams including the Primary Care Networks, are in a fortunate position to have plenty of capacity available at Calderdale and

One of the challenges is making sure staff feel safe

Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said Ms Horne.

Around 4,000 appointments per week are available seven days a week between 7.15am and 8.30pm on both the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital sites to vaccinate front line health and social care staff from both boroughs.

She said vaccination “is the best option for preventing serious illness and death along our population,” she said.

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