With schools in Kashmir reporting positive cases of COVID-19 infection among the staffers, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Sunday urged the authorities to prioritize COVID-19 vaccination for the teachers and school staff across Kashmir.
DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan said that this would provide safe environment for the students in the schools.
“Teacher vaccination will ensure the health and safety of both the teachers and the students,” he said. “It will keep schools open and prevent disruption in learning.”
Dr Hassan said that the vaccination would make educators feel safe heading back to schools and parents would also be confident sending their children to the schools.
“Not only will vaccine protect teachers and students, but it will protect their families as well,” he said. “Unvaccinated teachers are at increased risk of getting the virus.”
Dr Hassan said that they would give it to other staff members and students with whom they were in contact most of the day.
“That means unimmunized teachers will play an important role in the spread of COVID-19 infection within the schools,” he said. “And schools can become breeding grounds for virus transmission and we can end up in another deadly wave of COVID-19 infection.”
The DAK president said that while most children who get COVID-19 develop mild illness, several hundreds died of respiratory failure or an inflammatory syndrome.
“A recent German study suggested that children may be as infectious as adults and can spread the virus as easily as adults,” he said. “Children can get infected at school and spread the virus to parents and grandparents at home who are more likely to develop severe disease.”
Dr Hassan said that the schools were very dynamic places.
“This is not just about students coming and going, it is about students interacting with bus drivers, with other parents that come into school buildings to drop kids off. There is a lot of activity,” he said. “Children tend not to follow social distancing and are not particular about personal hygiene. Many schools in Kashmir lack infrastructure to maintain physical distancing and they do not follow rigorous cleaning protocols that could help prevent and control the spread of the virus.”