Vaccination against COVID-19 by teachers and Education staff could begin in two weeks

Vaccination of Department of Education (DE) teachers and non-teaching staff against COVID-19 could begin during the week of January 18, the Puerto Rican National Guard and the Department of Health anticipate.

This would happen next to the start of subphase 1b, according to the assistant general José Reis on Tuesday.

The logistics will consist of the establishment of seven vaccination centers, one in each educational region, in which the same nursing staff of the agency will administer the vaccine. Reis held a meeting today with designated secretary Elba Aponte.

“The goal is to open the week of January 18 the seven Education Vaccination Centers, administer the first and second dose on or before February 28.”, Reyes said in an interview with The New Day.

The assistant general reported that Education conducted a census among its teaching and non-teaching staff, numbering around 40,000, of whom approximately 36,000 responded to be interested in receiving the vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus strain. which causes COVID -19.

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

Governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said yesterday that as soon as teachers and non-teaching staff in Education are vaccinated, the agency will be in a position to resume face-to-face classes.

“As soon as the teaching staff is vaccinated we will be able to reopen the schools gradually and partially. At best, this should be happening in early March.”, Established the first executive at a press conference in La Fortalesa.

Meanwhile, the Department’s nursing staff has already begun completing the appropriate training to be certified as vaccine providers by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). dir Reis. These are about 900 health professionals who will be distributed in the seven centers.

Reis indicated that on Thursday and Friday they will have meetings with the organizations that group the mayors, to determine the ways in which municipalities can support the operation, mainly identifying facilities to establish vaccination centers that will be dedicated exclusively to the Education staff.

Aponte, meanwhile, argued that the agency will be prepared to fulfill its part of the logistics. “We are going to prepare to have all the necessary criteria, but it will depend on the flow of vaccine arrivals. It is a chain, but that is our goal,” he stressed.

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

According to Reyes, the vaccination process for Education staff will be within the start of subphase 1-b, scheduled for mid-January. This subphase includes front-line workers and adults over the age of 65 or older who do not live in congregated settings. The latter group is a population of about 400,000 people who could be vaccinated in about 150 community pharmacies with which the Department of Health has signed agreements, as well as in other facilities such as Diagnosis and Treatment Centers, primary medical groups and Centers. Primary health or centers 330.