All teachers in Kenya will have received the COVID-19 vaccination jab in the next seven days, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has announced.
Speaking in Nakuru on Monday when she launched the national campaign for the scale up of the COVID-19 vaccine for teachers, TSC CEO Dr Nancy Macharia said that the number of teachers vaccinated so far is not impressive.
“This is in spite of the government having prioritised and identified teachers as frontline workers,” said Dr Macharia.
According to TSC, so far178,734 teachers have received the first COVID-19 dose.
110,342 teachers have received both the first and second dose.
Dr Macharia said that the commission targets to vaccinate a total of 330,671 teachers on its payroll and thousands others in private schools across the country.
“We need the protection of the vaccine, or we will lose many of our teachers considering that we have increased enrolment in our schools owing to the 100% transition,” she said.
Dr Macharia called on teachers to come out and make sure that they get the jab ahead of the August 23rd deadline that has been set for civil servants.
So far, the commission says that 81 teachers have died of COVID-19 related complications since March 2020.
Rift Valley Regional Commissioner George Natembeya, challenged teachers to use their influence in society to convince the public to get the vaccine.
