The government must live up to its promise to provide COVID-19 vaccines for school faculty before schools reopen on Wednesday next week, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taipei Teachers’ Association said yesterday.
The most up-to-date statistics from the Taipei City Government show that there are 10,528 faculty members who require an additional dose to be fully vaccinated, but that it only received 5,800 doses from the central government, KMT Legislator Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) told a news conference in Taipei.
Not including those who have received a shot out-of-pocket, there are 3,000 teachers in Taipei alone who have not yet received their first dose, Lin said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
A lack of data on vaccinations from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education is a dereliction of duty or fear of announcing the number of educators who have yet to be vaccinated, she said.
Teachers are anxious as they have no way of getting vaccinated, while the government has yet to clarify whether teachers would be allowed to enter schools if they are not fully vaccinated, she added.
The ministries must live up to Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) pledge to provide vaccines to teachers as soon as possible, Lin said.
“School expenses have grown considerably as they have had to purchase dividers, COVID-19 rapid screening kits, masks for emergency use and medical-grade isopropyl alcohol,” association president Yeh Ching-chih (葉青?) said.
The Ministry of Education’s subsidies pale in the face of these expenses, Yeh said.
Teachers are willing to comply with government policies on vaccination, but the government should also implement measures if teachers are told by healthcare workers that they should not get vaccinated for health reasons, he added.
Separately, KMT Taichung City Councilor Lee Li-hua (李麗華) yesterday tendered a motion to grant the Taichung City Government the power to purchase vaccines, following the Taipei City Government’s announcement that it planned to do so.
The Taipei City Government on Monday said that it would budget NT$2.8 billion (US$100.2 million) to buy 2.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, although it has not yet decided on the brand.
Lee’s motion proposes that the Taichung City Government budget NT$3 billion to purchase vaccines.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co-affiliated Yonglin Foundation and the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation have each purchased 5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Democratic Progressive Party Taichung City Council caucus convener Hsieh Ming-yuan (謝明源) said.
Should Taichung place an order and receive vaccines, they would still have to be distributed by the central government, Hsieh said, adding that the central government should remain in charge of purchasing vaccines.
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