The Superintendent of the Kamloops-Thompson School District says some teachers in the Kamloops area have been contacted and told to come get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Terry Sullivan says as far as he knows, there are no official clinics yet set up in the area meant solely for teachers, similar to what is being done in the Kelowna area because of an increase in cases there.
“They are people who have probably registered prior but it seems to be the calls are coming from pharmacies which is kind of what we were expecting as far as the roll out of vaccine to school district personnel was being talked about a month ago,” he told NL News.
“What we’re seeing on the ground is that seems to be happening, although I haven’t received any of that information from Interior Health.”
Interior Health has said previously that vaccine appointments for front-line priority workers like teachers will be organized by their employers.
“At the end of March, we were basically being told that everybody in the K-12 sector was going to be vaccinated and then that changed, because the vaccine was simply not available and we were told that,” Sullivan added. “So I haven’t heard much more since then.”
“I’m just assuming that as the doses become available, they want to get teachers and those working in schools vaccinated. I don’t know if there’s been a policy with respect to that, but that’s what I see happening on the ground.”
Speaking during his weekly media briefing, the top doctor in Interior Health noted that health officials will reach out to schools districts regarding vaccines for staff in the weeks ahead.
Dr. Albert de Villiers says with an increase in AstraZeneca vaccine doses, the health authority is resuming its plans to immunize frontline workers.
“We looked at the rates where there is the highest spread in the communities but also the highest rate of infection within schools and things happening in schools, so we decided to do Central Okanagan first,” he said.
An estimated 2,500 teachers and school staff in the Central Okanagan School District (SD23) have gotten a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Definitely, other school boards are also going to be reached out to as well within the next few weeks and we will be able to get vaccine into all the educators at that point,” he added. “A little bit of patience but another few weeks and we should be able to get to everybody.”
Sullivan tells NL News as far as he knows teachers are willing to take the first vaccine that is made available to them.
“Teachers and principals are telling me that they’ve been called and they are taking advantage of the opportunity. There’s a few cases where they would be eligible for Pfizer and some of them are opting for that, but what I’m seeing generally is that younger people, when the AstraZeneca becomes available they’re taking advantage of it and they’re being vaccinated,” Sullivan said.
He says the quicker more people get vaccinated against COVID-19, the quicker we’ll be back to normal life, noting that will be a good thing for everyone.