Tripura, Maharashtra only states to vaccinate all teachers: Education Ministry

NEW DELHI: Tripura and Maharashtra are the only states to have vaccinated all teaching staff in government and private unaided schools with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine , the education ministry told Parliament on Monday.

Tripura has also managed to vaccinate all non-teaching staff and Maharashtra was able to vaccinate 98.53 percent of non-teaching staff as of November 25, 2021.

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The union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh and Lakshadweep also managed to vaccinate all teaching and non-teaching staff in government schools and private unaided schools, the ministry said.

The details revealed by the education ministry are crucial with the new Omicron COVID-19 variant spreading fears among the general public. Parents from across India had expressed concerns about school reopening and the vaccination rates of teachers in schools.

Covid vaccine for teachers: Best states

The states of West Bengal (99.67%), Himachal Pradesh (99.54%), Tamil Nadu (99.44%), Rajasthan (99.40%) and Bihar (98.92%) also had high vaccination rates for teachers in both public and private sector.

These states managed similarly high vaccination rates for non-teaching staff as well.

Covid vaccine for teachers: Worst states

Haryana was the worst performer in this metric with only 78.94 percent teaching staff and 68.06 percent non-teaching staff vaccinated as of November 25, 2021.

Manipur (80.84%) and Nagaland (82.10%) followed Haryana as the worst performers in vaccinating teaching staff. Manipur and Nagaland were only able to vaccinate 70.34 percent and 78.80 percent of non-teaching staff respectively.

Haryana, Manipur and Nagaland are also the only states with less than 90 percent of teaching staff vaccinated against COVID-19.