It was confirmed by the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, last Sunday: Professors, along with other essential officials, such as Onemi and Conaf, would begin to be inoculated between the last days of February and the first of March. And according to the calendar that La Moneda and Minsal manage -and published by La Tercera-, from the week of February 22, it would be the turn of these priority groups.
With that preliminary information, which should be made official by President Sebastián Piñera, in the next few hours, municipalities have already begun to outline vaccination strategies for a group that has been defined as highly relevant to meet their own expectations Ministry of Education, where they have established as a general rule the return to presence in the classrooms as of March 1 of this year.
From the Minsal, they point out that the coordination of the groups is being carried out according to the local strategies of each region, through the respective Seremi de Salud.
In that sense, in the most populated commune of the country, Puente Alto, progress has already been made on a plan exclusively for teachers, even before having official guidelines from Health.
Daniela Torres, director of the municipal corporation for education, health and care for minors, explains that attending to the process flexibility -which has allowed to vaccinate older adults in advance, according to their age-, addresses that “the idea is to vaccinate teachers as of February 15. Officially, it’s the last week of February, but if we manage to get ahead in logistics, it would be ideal. So that when classes start, the teachers are somewhat protected “.
“For this process, the idea is that the vaccination points are other. For teachers, the ideal is to use our schools as headquarters for the immunization process, and since we have the list of teachers of municipal schools, it is enough that they present an identity card and, if they want to complement it, with the credential. With regard to professionals from private and subsidized establishments, we will request the lists from the respective holders ”, Torres details.
A similar strategy is adopting Independence for the next few weeks. Its mayor, Gonzalo Durán, points out that when the vaccination period for teachers and other education professionals begins, there will be exclusive immunization points, in order to avoid agglomerations in the general vaccination which, in those days, also has chronically ill patients on the calendar.
“We are coordinating through the department of education of the commune and we will have a couple of schools to carry out a vaccination process parallel to that of the rest of the neighbors. In this way we avoid crowds and carry out a specific convocation strategy for all establishments in the commune ”, explains the mayor of Independencia.
In the neighboring commune of Santiago, the communal chief, Felipe Alessandri, points out that it has been defined that teachers will be vaccinated at the closest immunization point to the campus where they work. There, he not only counts the teachers, but also educational assistants and kitchen staff from Junaeb.
“We are waiting for the ministry to notify us of the calendar for teachers, and We will contact them one by one to immunize them at the nearest vaccination center to the educational establishment. We have enough vaccines, the contacts and we are waiting for the Minsal to give the signal to vaccinate our teachers, educational assistants and those who collaborate with the kitchen -Junaeb officials- in each of the establishments “, confirms the mayor of Santiago .
Towards the east of the capital, from the Municipality of The Counts state that, as for their own officials, will vaccinate the staff of municipal precincts in the same establishments, as they return to their functions as of February 22. Thus, and like Santiago, they clarify that this group includes all the personnel who work in the schools of the commune.
Meanwhile, in La Granja, mayor Felipe Delpin -who also chairs the health commission of the Chilean Association of Municipalities- points out that the lists of teachers and other education officials are already being checked. “We are going to ask for the lists to the local education service to make a check-up of the workers and that there is no type of abuse in that sense. All those who have a contract in any school, whether private or municipal, will be vaccinated and all teachers who provide services “, clarifies the community chief.
From the teaching profession, the president of the College of Teachers, Carlos Díaz, makes his calculations and estimates that in terms of school education officials -that is, from preschool to high school- “The professors and professors are about 180,000 accredited teachers in the system, according to the Mineduc background. Education assistants must be 80 thousand or 100 thousand more. Kindergarten (workers) is a similar number. On average, there must be 400 to 500 thousand all education workers ”.
Díaz, in line with what several communes have defined, concludes that the inoculation of his colleagues should be “in the same school or the nearest vaccination center. The ministry (of Education) has the list of teachers, commune by commune, municipalities, private-subsidized schools could deliver them online ”.
“I trust the people, I trust the compatriots, I trust the faith of the Chileans,” was what Minister Paris stressed yesterday when referring to the way in which the condition of chronic patient will be credited against the vaccination to be started in that group next February 22.
As La Tercera had already advanced, people will not have to prove their condition, since most of the pathologies defined as comorbidity have a GES diagnosis, which is registered in any place -public or private- where the patient attends.
“I think that asking for a certificate – that they have to go to the doctor, make an appointment, ask for a written paper – is not correct. I think if the person has a discharge card, has a copy of his epicrisis, has a prescription where he says he is using a medicine that any nurse and anyone who is going to vaccinate will recognize it immediately because they are prepared for it and they know medicine too, that’s enough. Let’s not put more obstacles to the vaccine, or put more bureaucracy. The person who is chronically ill knows it, he can prove it, and we, in good faith, will believe him, ”he said.
According to the information provided by the Department of Immunizations of Minsal, once the process begins for patients with associated comorbidities, “they may go (to get vaccinated) all chronic users as defined in stage 1e, according to age ”, which will be announced in the coming days if the decreasing order is maintained.
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