Vaccinating children with Covid-19 shots should not be linked to school reopening as there is no scientific evidence behind such an association, top health officials said on Thursday, assuring the states that are still in two minds to start offline schooling.
But teachers and school staff should be vaccinated fully while it is desirable for the parents of the school-going children to get themselves vaccinated, V K Paul, NITI Aayog member and principal advisor to the government on Covid-19 said.
"No scientific body, epidemiology and evidence suggest that vaccination against Covid-19 should be a condition to reopen schools. Inoculation of teachers, other school employees and parents, however, are desirable," he said.
The schools have also been asked by the government to follow the standard operating procedures about ventilation, seating arrangements, staggered classes and masking when they reopen.
"There is no WHO recommendation (on inoculating the kids before sending them to school) for reasons such as low mortality and high incidence of asymptomatic infection. We as a nation and government are working actively in the direction of scientific validation of our vaccines for potential use in children."
Currently, there are only 35 districts – mostly in Kerala and North East – with more than 10% weekly positivity whereas there are another 30 districts where the positivity rate varies between 5-10%.