The Minister of Education, Dr. Valentine Uwamariya has said that all teachers must have received the third dose (booster) of COVI-19 vaccine before returning to school in the second school term.
Primary and secondary schools are expected to open respectively on 10th and 13th January 2021.
The second term is opening few weeks after Rwanda confirmed the new Coronavirus variant dubbed ‘omicron’ which prompted the country to tighten preventive measures.
Appearing in RBA talk show, Dr. Uwamariya has said that the situation is controllable because many head teachers are aware of recommended health guidelines to contain the spread of the virus at schools.
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She however stressed the need to take more strict measures to ensure enhanced protection against the new variant which spreads faster.
“We are lucky that head teachers know how to react when a new case is confirmed at their schools but we still need to be more vigilant and design new strategies to contain the spread of the virus in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Rwanda Biomedical Center,” Dr. Uwamariya said.
The Minister reminded teachers that they must have received the booster dose before returning to school as it was recommended by the Ministry of Education recently.
“We have recently urged eligible teachers to have received the third dose before the opening of the second school term. We are hopeful that no teacher will return to school without doing the necessary,” she affirmed.
MINEDUC shows that over 90% of eligible students have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine in Kigali City.
Among others, students from 14 districts received the first dose in the first school term expected to receive the second dose as they return to school before the program is rolled out to students in the remaining 16 district countrywide.
