As the government has announced to administer coronavirus vaccine doses to children between the age bracket of five and 12 from September 19 in the federal capital and selective districts of Sindh and Punjab, a large number of parents in the Rawalpindi district have expressed their reluctance to sign a form, seeking their assent to get their children vaccinated at schools against the deadly virus.
According to the health data, Pakistan has so far administered full doses of the coronavirus vaccine to 131 million individuals aged 12 years and above.
Government and private schools in Rawalpindi district had sought written permission from parents showing their assent to vaccinate their children when the teams arrived on September 19.
According to heads of various schools, a large number of parents of students, especially girls, have refused to give their written permission, which may badly affect the vaccination drive.
According to sources, many parents have declared that if their children were forced to get the vaccine, they will take legal action against school administrations and report the matter to relevant police stations. According to sources, several parents have threatened to file cases against school principals, class teachers and the health teams.
All private school organisations and government school teachers’ associations have also showed rheir reluctance to force the children to get the jabs with the assent of their parents.
Teachers' associations have taken the stance that it was the prerogative of only parents to give their consent to get their children vaccinated. No child will be given the coronavirus vaccine without the written permission of parents.
There are a total of 4,106 government and private schools in the Rawalpindi district. Of the 2,299 private schools, the number of unregistered private schools is around 10,000.
All-Pakistan Private Schools’ Management Association President Abrar Ahmad Khan said that the vaccination drive will be carried out in the Rawalpindi district from September 19 to September 24. “We have asked for written permission from the parents of all the students. By September 15, we will receive responses from parents through the forms given to the students. Their list will be provided to the health department the same day,” he said adding that children whose parents will not give their consent will not be Covid-19 jabs.
Teachers’ organisations or teachers themselves cannot allow vaccination, he said.
Sources said that without launching prior awareness campaigns, health teams visiting houses and mobile teams will face serious difficulties in administering the vaccine to children aged five and 11 years because most parents were not psychologically prepared to administer the dose to their children.
A father, Muhammad Tufail, said that the president, the prime minister, chief ministers, federal and provincial ministers and top health and administrative officers should give the injection to their young children in the first stage before asking the public for the same.
Rawalpindi District Health Authority chief Dr Ansar said that coronavirus vaccines were safe. He said that at the present, “getting coronavirus jabs is the only prevention we have against Covid-19. Since the novel coronavirus is highly contagious, it is necessary to inoculate the maximum number of people.”
The vaccine has no side effects, he said adding that a separate room will be reserved for vaccination in each school as teams consisting of senior doctors will administer the jabs. He said that senior doctors will be available to tend to possible reactions to the vaccine.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 14th, 2022.
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