98% of govt school staff in Punjab have got at least 1 jab – Times of India

After a gap of more than four months, all schools in the state are running normally from August 2. So far, only about 170 students and staffers have contracted the virus after rejoining the schools. Keeping in mind the safety of staff and students, the Union government had last month directed all states to vaccinate all teachers and staff at least partially by the end of September.

Of the 1,29,325 staff — 1,12,325 teaching and 17,113 non-teaching — 1,27,016 have received at least one dose of the vaccine while only 2,309 are yet to be jabbed. As many as 92,790 have been fully vaccinated (72.74%) while the second dose is pending of 34,226 staff members.
After a slow start, the Punjab education department along with the health department organised special camps across the state for vaccinating the staff members. As per the data of the state health department, 9,656 staffers out of 9,773 have received one dose of the vaccine while 7,002 have been jabbed twice. In Ludhiana,11,124 of 11,282 have been partially and 7,419 fully immunised. In Barnala, only 28 staffers are yet to receive their first dose. The number of such teaching and non-teaching staff stands at 51 in Mukstar, 61 in Nawanshahr, 62 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 69 in Kapurthala, 73 in Fazilka and 83 in Jalandhar, 88 in Mansa, 90 in Mohali and 96 in Pathankot.

According to health experts, even a single dose of vaccine offers some level of protection from the virus. If the findings of research published in different journals is to be considered, one vaccine dose reduces the risk of death from the disease by over 80%, by about 95% after two doses. Mass vaccination is viewed by health experts as the only hope along with adherence to Covid- appropriate behaviour in keeping the pandemic under control.

Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi had on September 29 asked the school education department to encourage students to attend classes by following the necessary health protocols. The schools are following strict surveillance protocol and testing strategy issued by the state health department, according to which schools reporting weekly positivity rates of more than 10% will not be allowed to carry in-person learning. Random testing of students and staff is being conducted.