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.

Also Read | Education ministry takes USD 500 million ADB loan to create ‘exemplar schools’

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.