With effect from November 1, all post-secondary institutions of learning (Universities and Tertiary institutions) shall resume operations, President Yoweri Museveni has revealed.
This he said will be done provided all teachers and non-teaching staff in that institution have been vaccinated.
To date, out of the targeted 550,000 teachers, 269,945 have already received the first dose of vaccination while 96,653 have received the second dose.
This, he said leaves a total of 280,055 not yet vaccinated at all.
Museveni made these remarks while addressing the nation on the status of COVID-19 on Wednesday night.
“The rest of the learning institutions will open in January 2022,” he said.
Infections in children below 18 years, he said are often mild and they recover quickly but however, many of the 15 million learners are day scholars who once infected, go back home and infect their parents and grandparents that may subsequently die.
This he noted was observed during the second wave.
“To avoid a similar scenario, the National Task Force, on several occasions considered conditions for safe re-opening of schools which included; vaccination of teachers, non-teaching staff, 330,000 students aged 18 years and above, plus all the other priority population, This was in addition to the rate of transmission in the country,” he said.
It’s close to two years since schools were closed due to the pandemic outbreak.
“I call upon all teachers and support staff to get vaccinated as soon as possible to enable safe re-opening of schools,” he said
Suspected cases in schools, he said should be reported to the District and City Task Forces once the schools open
“Follow up the use of Rapid Antigen Self-tests with World Health Organization (WHO), and once approved, inform the Ministry of Education and Sports to consider their use in schools,” he said.
