ISSA aiming at October restart for schoolboy football
President of the InterSecondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), Keith Wellington, says he will be lobbying principals to encourage their students to take the COVID-19 vaccine to facilitate the safe return of high school sports in Jamaica.
ISSA, the governing body for high school sports in Jamaica, was forced to abandon all competitions in 2020 because of the outbreak of the virus in the country. The Boys and Girls’ Championships was held at the National Stadium earlier this year but without spectators.
As of Monday, Jamaica has recorded 59,088 cases of the deadly virus while there have been 1,320 deaths. As many as 47,540 have recovered after contracting the coronavirus.
Wellington told STAR Sports that ISSA will be working very closely with all stakeholders on this matter as they plan to restart the Manning and daCosta Cup competitions in October.
“I am encouraging the principals to get their student athletes to take the vaccine,” said Wellington.
“There will be vaccines available for persons who are over 14 years old and so we expect that players can get the vaccine as well,” he said.
Wellington, the principal of St Elizabeth Technical High School, pointed out that it is very expensive for ISSA to pay to test every player taking part in schoolboy competitions this season and, therefore, if everyone takes the vaccine, then it will make for a much safer environment for them to operate in.
“We have started having some discussions with my institution and we are hoping that over the next couple of weeks, we will be able to see some fruits of those discussions,” he said.
Meanwhile, renowned physician Dr Akshai Mansingh has sided with Wellington, and said that the Pfizer vaccine has proven to be safe for kids 12 years old and older.
“The Pfizer vaccine is approved for anybody above the age of 12, and this is why the prime minister (Andrew Holness) said that the Pfizer vaccines that we are going to get will be prioritised for schoolchildren,” Dr Mansingh said.
“It has been approved for children for more than six months now and has been given to children all over the world, and there have been millions of kids who have gotten it already and there have been no major side effects,” he said.
“I think ISSA is doing the right thing because I think the children are going to be the main transmitters of the disease, and so you want to make sure that they are safe,” Mansingh said.