Kerala general education minister V Sivankutty, who recently said that around 5,000 school teachers in Kerala were yet be vaccinated against coronavirus on Saturday said that now only 1,707 school teachers and non-teaching staff yet to be inoculated.
The minister had, on Friday, said that a list identifying teachers who did not take the vaccine would be published, however, the state government did not do so fearing that identifying them would fan resentment against those who were keeping off from vaccination and create trouble.
The minister had initially said that around 2,300 teachers and staff were not vaccinated even as schools across the state reopened on November 1. Recently he stated that the number of unvaccinated teachers were around 5,000. Several teachers kept away from getting inoculated citing religious beliefs.
After the minister's statement, the government warned teachers and government employees against not getting vaccinated except on genuine medical grounds. Subsequently, it was decided that weekly Covid RT-PCR negative certificate would be mandatory for government employees and teachers.
The Minister said that these norms would be strictly enforced.
He added that teachers and parents were taking the government's steps positively and the number of students turning up at schools was rising after norms were tightened.
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Published 04 December 2021, 11:26 IST