Covid-19 vaccine: Call to give priority to teachers

KUALA LUMPUR: Teachers should also be given priority as recipients of Covid-19 vaccine as they spend the most time with students when the school starts.

Education expert Prof Dr Ismi Arif Ismail said the earlier announcement was that children and teenagers aged 18 and below would not be given the Covid19 vaccine for the time being as frontliners and senior citizens would be given priority due their risk in getting infected.

"So to ensure that children are also protected from the pandemic, teachers need to be given the vaccine as protection for others.

"Besides, teachers and students will be spending considerable time together during school sessions so it is only appropriate for teachers to be protected to make students feel safe with them," he told Bernama.

Apart from that, he stressed, they (teachers and students) must continue to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOP) set such as practising physical distancing, wearing face masks and hand washing as well as avoiding gathering to combat the pandemic.

"I would like to remind that under any circumstances, the SOP should continue to be complied with and should not be taken lightly even if the vaccine is now available. We should have to continue complying with the SOP to prevent any waves of breakout," he said.

Indirectly, Ismi Arif, who is also the director of the Institute of Social Sciences Studies (IPSAS), Putra Infoport, Universiti Putra Malaysia, said the situation would remove the fear of parents to send their children to school.

"... and parents should also be assured that the school has taken safety measures before children are allowed to go to school," he said.

On Tuesday, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) executive director, Henrietta Fore recommended that teachers be given priority to obtain the Covid-19 vaccine, after frontliners and high-risk groups.