WITH schools in several states set to reopen tomorrow, a DAP leader urged the Government to wait until at least 80% of the school staffers and students get fully vaccinated before commencing face to face learning.
“I must admit that I’m not COVID-19 and infectious diseases expert. However, as a ‘soldier’ on the battleground, it gives me the privilege to provide apt responses to the pandemic dynamics by taking socioeconomic and cultural factors into account, besides scientific evidence.
“We have to be realistic that it’s safer to reopen schools in mid-January, provided we could get between 80% and 90% of both school staff members and students fully vaccinated by the end of this year,” former Johor DAP chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau told FocusM.
Last month, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that schools in Selangor, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will reopen tomorrow, based on the operations stipulated for states in Phase Two under the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
One dose is insufficient
Boo said that 18% of the COVID-19 infections so far involved children and adolescents. So far, those aged between 12 and 17 have only received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“One dose of the vaccine does not guarantee full protection against infection until two weeks after the second dose. Plus, the vaccination does not include primary and pre-schoolers,” he noted.
Due to “selection pressure”, the veteran general practitioner said the coronavirus may become more virulent as it would seek younger hosts as the older generation gets fully vaccinated.
With that said, he urged the Public Services Department (PSD) to mandate all civil servants to get vaccinated, particularly school teachers.
“According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest report, the chance of students catching the infection from school staff is higher than student-to-staff or student-to-student transmission. Hence, the mandate for school teachers to get vaccinated is crucial to reopen schools,” Boo stressed. – Oct 3, 2021.
