By Sharon Cherono
The Ministry of Health in conjunction with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) on Thursday, launched the Covid-19 vaccination drive for teachers countrywide.
The first phase of the inoculation will include teachers who fall between the age of 50 years and above and those with underlying conditions.
The voluntary vaccination process will be conducted in the 575 centres for vaccination which include private, public and mission hospitals in all counties.
Special attention will be given to the 227,679 teachers who have been vetted and approved to administer the national examinations as either supervisors or invigilators. They are required to have undergone the vaccination process before the start of the exams.
The TSC CEO, Nancy Macharia who was the first to receive the jab said, “The government has made the right decision to protect over 330,671 public school teachers and 158,000 teachers working in private schools,”
Since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in Kenya, 41 teachers and 3 members of the TSC Secretariat have succumbed to the virus. Therefore, the roll out of the vaccine to teachers has been described as timely with the Health Ministry identifying them as frontline workers.
Dr. Willis Akhwale from the MOH says that everything is in place and he would like to assure teachers that the vaccine is safe and that it saves lives.