The Official Opposition is calling on the Higgs government to prioritize primary and middle school teachers and personnel for vaccination conditional of supply availability and/or age requirements for the AstraZeneca vaccine being lowered.

“We agree that teachers and school personnel should receive COVID-19 vaccines as a priority group, just as we supported vaccinations for those in the high school system, ” said MLA Benoît Bourque, Education and Early Childhood Development Critic.  “With the arrival of the variants it’s now more important than ever to ensure these valued frontline workers are protected so that they can continue to keep children safe as well.”

The Education and Early Childhood Development critic believes the benefit of vaccinating teachers and personnel goes beyond keeping our schools safe, it will also have a positive impact on families and communities.

“When cases are reported in the school setting, hundreds of families may be required to self-isolate for the 14-day period which can have significant impacts on communities,” Bourque added.  “In addition to all the measures that Public Health requires of our education system, we believe that providing vaccines to this group as a priority is another important tool to help stop the spread and keep staff and families safe.”