In the last one year, Qatar has successfully tackled challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic to country’s educational system and through timely decisions and implementation of hybrid mode of education the spread of outbreak was curbed in the schools. Now Qatar is vaccinating teachers and other staff of schools on priority basis considering them as essential workers so that kids, their families and eventually the whole society could be saved from the potential threat of spread of infection through in-person class rooms. Qatar has vaccinated over 45 percent of teachers and administrative staff working in government and private schools, said Dr. Abdullatif Al Khal, Chair of the National Strategic Group on COVID-19 and Head of the Infectious Diseases Division at Hamad Medical Corporation on Wednesday.
He further stressed that with government schools beginning their post-exams break, it is vital that parents and children continue to follow the preventive measures throughout the holidays to prevent a rise in infections among children before school resumes in a few weeks.
He said that the MoPH, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), will intensify monitoring to ensure the compliance of COVID-19 measures and protocols in schools to curb the infection. In February this year, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) had announced a change to its vaccine priority group eligibility criteria to include teachers and school administration staff under National COVID-19 Vaccination Program.
The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) had also opened a mass vaccination center at the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) to roll out COVID-19 vaccinations to teachers and school administration staff.
Though children do not suffer from serious complications due to COVID-19, they can transmit the infection among their families and relatives.
The authorities concerned are continuously monitoring the implementation of precautionary measures in the schools. In a similar development meant to secure schools from COVID-19 threat, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education had announced that employees will be allowed to enter a school only after making sure that the status of Ehteraz on their phones shows a golden frame or they show the corona vaccination card or bring proof that the they have gone through a weekly COVID-19 examination.
The new procedures are set to start from March 21 and in case of a confirmed infection or contact with confirmed infection, the quarantine period will be calculated without pay, and that is for every employee who had the opportunity to take the vaccine and didn’t take it for unacceptable reasons
