Muizniece is confident that teachers will get immunized by fall

RIGA - In order to achieve the necessary collective immunity of 80 percent among education employees, Education and Science Minister Anita Muizniece (New Conservative Party) is confident about teachers' readiness to get vaccinated by fall before the school year starts.

The minister's aide Ilze Krukle told LETA that despite the agiotage in the press, the decision on mandatory vaccination for certain jobs, including education employees, has not been made yet. Ministries are still assessing compliance of such requirements with the Labor Law and the Constitution.

The minister said that she still believes that teachers are one of the conscientious groups in the society and most of them will get immunized without a mandatory requirement by fall.

At the same time, if the decision is made on mandatory vaccination, the decision should be made in due time.

In order to speed up and ease the vaccination process, Muizniece has launched talks with the Health Ministry, asking to put aside Johnson& Johnson vaccines for teachers as only one dose of the vaccine is necessary to complete the immunization process.

As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers agreed on Thursday that employers will be authorized to dismiss employees who will not have obtained their Covid-19 certificates by September 15.

The government also agreed to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory for medics, social workers and teachers, among others.

The Justice Ministry in collaboration with the Ministries of Health, Welfare, Economics and Finance will draft the respective amendments to the Law on the Management of the Spread of Covid-19 Infection by July 14.

The new provisions will oblige employers to protect people in high-risk groups from being subjected to increased Covid-19 infection risks.