The Provincial Health Officer recently announced that K-12 educational staff are among priority groups identified by public health to receive their first dose of the AstraZeneca/SII COVISHIELD (AZ/SII) vaccine in April.
With doses of this vaccine available now, Fraser Health has decided to provide school-based staff in the Surrey School District early access to the vaccine in a phased approach, so immunization clinics are not overwhelmed.
"Our district has experienced more school-based exposures than any other district in our province," said Laurie Larsen, Chair of the Surrey Board of Education. "Education is an essential service, and we are so pleased that our school staff will be able to get immunized early."
With almost 9,000 school-based staff in the district, appointments are being offered to schools in zones that have the highest rates of community transmission first. This means that our first priority will be all schools in the Panorama-Sullivan, City Centre and Newton-Fleetwood areas.
BCTF President Teri Mooring welcomed the news for schools South of the Fraser with much enthusiasm.
From Teri Mooring: “It’s such a relief to learn that educators and school staff in Surrey will begin receiving COVID19 vaccines in the coming days. As we know, Surrey has been a hot spot for COVID-19 transmission in both community and school settings."#bced #bcpoli Thread ⬇️ https://t.co/6BobSgMygq
— BCTF (@bctf) March 23, 2021
Teri Mooring: "We’re glad to see government now prioritizing Surrey teachers as they begin rolling out vaccines for frontline workers. We also need to see a full mask mandate and ventilation upgrades in place so workers, students, and families are all protected." #bced #bcpoli
— BCTF (@bctf) March 23, 2021
Vaccinations will begin March 24 and our hope is that all of our school-based staff will be immunized by April 1. The clinics will begin with a capacity of more than 400 people per day but will quickly increase to about 1,500 per day.
The district will share a letter with staff at each school as their school becomes eligible. The letter will include instructions for immunization appointments, including your allotted time slot.
"Our staff have been working tirelessly to keep our schools open and ensure our students can continue to learn as safely as possible," said Superintendent Jordan Tinney. "Providing early access to the vaccine for our district's school-based staff, particularly as transmission continues to be high in our community, is critical in keeping our schools open for in-person learning and ultimately benefiting our entire community."
At this time, only school-based staff – employees who are assigned to a specific school site – are eligible. District staff who are not school based are not eligible at this time.
Our hope is that all our school-based staff take advantage of this opportunity and choose to get vaccinated as their school is eligible. These immunizations will help address ongoing community transmission, and help protect our staff, students and larger school communities.
