Ukrainian Education Minister Serhiy Shkarlet says the government is working on a mechanism to make COVID-19 vaccination obligatory for teachers.
So far, teachers are not legally required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, however they are potential carriers of the virus among children and coworkers, he said in an interview for the RBC Ukraine news agency.
"Children contract the virus less, but they are also carriers. We must think over whether it is necessary to introduce either vaccination or PCR testing in the qualification characteristics of the profession," Shkarlet said.
Read alsoUkraine PM announces new incoming batch of Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19The minister added 32% of education workers had been initially ready for vaccination.
"As of now, 250,000 school and kindergarten workers have already been registered for vaccination, as well as over 25,000 applicants in higher education institutions and colleges (this is more than 90% of all workers on average for all educational institutions). I know for sure Kyiv has already even started administering second shots. Perhaps the name of the Pfizer vaccine will give us an even larger percentage of those wishing," he added.
Earlier, on May 18, the second batch of the Pfizer vaccine was delivered to Ukraine. According to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, this vaccine will be used to vaccinate education workers.
