Complete first dose of vaccination for teaching, non-teaching staff in September: Centre to states

New Delhi, Aug 31: The Ministry of Education (MoE) on Tuesday asked all the states and Union Territories to get first dose of vaccination completed for all teaching and non-teaching staff during September.

In a meeting with education secretaries from states and UTs, School Education Secretary Anita Karwal asked the officials to come up with a roadmap for vaccinating the teachers on priority. The schools have to update data about vaccination of teachers twice a week on a Google tracker.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had on last Wednesday said more than two crore additional COVID-19 vaccine doses are being made available to states this month, and they have been asked to vaccinate all school teachers on priority before Teachers'' Day on September 5.

"The ministry has advised all the states and UTs to get the first dose of vaccination completed for all the teaching and non-teaching staff during the month of September and those who have already received first dose should be followed up rigorously for the 2nd dose," a senior MoE official said.

"The secretary also advised the states that health and education secretaries of all states and UTs should jointly design a road map at district level for vaccination of all the teaching and non-teaching staff. The states have also been asked to share vaccination details of teachers twice a week on a Google tracker provided by the ministry," the official added.

Schools across the country were closed in March last year ahead of a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of novel coronavirus infection.

The Centre had allowed reopening of schools as per the COVID-19 situation in October last year. While several states began partial reopening of schools, there was a complete closure again in April when an aggressive second wave of COVID-19 hit the country.

With the improvement in the COVID-19 situation, several states have begun reopening schools now even as concerns have been expressed over the staff and teachers not being completely vaccinated.