TSC to teachers: You have seven days to get Covid-19 jab
The Teachers Service Commission has issued a warning to teachers who are yet to receive Covid-19 jab that they have only a week to get the shot or risk facing disciplinary action.
TSC decried the low uptake of the vaccine by teachers despite being one of the priority groups, with only 33 per cent of teachers’ population having been fully vaccinated.
Speaking at the Nakuru County Teaching and Referral Hospital on Monday, TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said the number of teachers vaccinated was not impressive.
She said only 110,342 teachers had received the jab yet the government had targeted 330,671 teachers on the TSC payroll and thousands more teaching in private schools.
A total of 178,734 teachers have been vaccinated with the first dose but were yet to return for the second dose.
“Uptake of the vaccine is still very low despite the government having prioritized and identified teachers as frontline workers together with health, police, and military officers who were targeted during round one of the inoculations,” she said.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that since the pandemic struck the country in March last year, a total of 549 teachers have contracted COVID-19 with 81 succumbing to the virus, while 468 have fully recovered.
Ms. Macharia has therefore called on teachers, who are yet to be vaccinated to take advantage of the availability of vaccinations ahead of the August 23 deadline, and also to curb the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
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“The aim of this drive is to have all teachers vaccinated within the next seven days and all TSC regional and county directors should encourage and inform them,” she said.
In a memo dated August 5, the head Public Service Commission Joseph Kinyua issued a directive to principal secretaries and other accounting officers to ensure full implementation of the order, adding that all civil servants will be prioritized in the ongoing vaccination exercise.
Mr.Kinyua said it had been discovered there was a low uptake of the vaccines among public servants especially the teachers and the security sector.
“It has, therefore, been decided that all civil servants will be prioritized in the ongoing vaccination exercise and that those who will not have been given the 1st jab by August 23, 2021, be treated as discipline cases and appropriate action taken against them,” read part of his statement.
As of August 15, a total of 2,053,717 vaccines had been administered across the country with the total first doses being 1,305,850 while second doses 747,867.
The uptake of the second dose among those who received their first dose is at 57.3 per cent with the majority being males at 55 per cent while females are at45 per cent. The proportion of adults fully vaccinated is 2.7 per cent.
