Mandatory for students to get fully vaccinated by Nov 30: Dr Faisal

The government’s point-person on health Dr Faisal Sultan on Friday said that it was mandatory for students aged 12 and above to get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by the end of November.

“Oct 31 is the last date for partial vaccination whereas Nov 30 is the last date for complete vaccination against Covid-19,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Sultan said at a press conference in Islamabad.

The development comes a day after the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC)’s decision of resuming normal schooling from next week. “Based on the reduced level of Covid disease spread and the launch of the school vaccination program, it has been decided in today’s NCOC meeting to allow all educational institutions to start normal classes from 11th October,” Planning Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, said in a tweet on Thursday.

Stressing that unvaccinated students would not be allowed to attend school after Nov 31, the SAPM urged parents to get their school-going children inoculated against the deadly microbe.

Saturday has been fixed for vaccination of children in schools, Sultan said, adding that the last weeks of October and November have been fixed for the vaccination of students in their institutions as well.

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The PM’s aide further said such a condition also applies to seminaries, which are required to get their students vaccinated by the above-mentioned dates.

According to Sultan, mobile teams would visit schools to administer jabs as the government did not want students to lag behind in their studies due to the closure of educational institutions.

“The government has taken the decision as it is observed that school-going children are a primary vector during the fourth Covid-19 wave,” Sultan said.

During the presser, he also allayed the concerns of parents regarding vaccines. Sultan said: “Vaccines are safe and approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Parents should not hesitate from getting their children vaccinated.”

The SAPM added that vaccination was important not only to ensure uninterrupted studies but also to take the country towards normalcy.

The premier’s aide further said the decision of allowing schools to resume normal classes from Monday has been taken in view of the decrease in Covid-19 cases across Pakistan. He also expressed satisfaction that the vaccination campaign was moving forward smoothly, saying a total of 90 million vaccine doses have been administered so far.