Barbados will soon be taking its vaccination drive into secondary schools in an effort to get more school-aged youth protected against the COVID-19 virus.
Chief Medical Officer, The Most Honourable Dr Kenneth George said: “We’ve taken a decision that we are going to bring vaccines to the schools, with parental consent. We will have vaccines for those individuals 12 years and up and will do it on a school by schools basis.”
George said it was still too soon to say when the project would commence.
“We continue to work with the Ministry of Education. We meet on a weekly basis to look into any challenges that come up. We are still trying to source vaccines (for those Under-12) as we speak. We’ve gotten some promising leads and once we have the vaccines, we will make sure to roll that out quickly.” he said.
When contacted yesterday, president of the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools (BAPPS) Stephen Jackman said that organisation was yet to have dialogue with the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Education on the project, so it would be premature to comment on the situation.
Meanwhile, Senior Medical Officer Dr Arthur Phillips also revealed yesterday that a few students had tested positive for COVID-19 since the country returned to face-to-face classes earlier this year, but investigations by public health officials had determined the infections in each case had originated in the communities where the children resided and not at the schools.
He said that metric indicated the general distribution and transmission of the virus among young people in Barbados was still based in local communities and not at places of learning. (BA)