85% of Scotland’s teachers to be jabbed by next term

But plans are for mitigations, such as masks, in secondaries to remain in place in Scotland at the start of next school year

29th June 2021, 11:57am

Emma Seith

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New figures from Scotland’s public health body show it expects 85 per cent of Scottish teachers to have received two doses of Covid-19 vaccine by the start of the new school year in August.

The Public Health Scotland projections are based on the new “eight weeks between jabs” regime - down from the previous target of 12 weeks, which is now in place.

However, the Scottish government says it is still working on the basis that when schools go back, mitigations - like masks in secondaries - that were in place at the end of term will still apply in August.

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A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Following discussions with the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group, and in line with the expert advice of the advisory sub-group, we have advised that, for logistical purposes, schools should plan to be able to retain the current safety mitigations at the start of the new term.

“This is, in part, due to the significant practical challenges of reintroducing key mitigations should they still be required post-summer, for example, due to local outbreaks.”

The spokesperson added that where mitigations could be “safely and practically” removed after the summer holidays, schools would be asked “to do so as quickly as is operationally feasible”.

The news comes as new cases of Covid-19 in Scotland passed 3,000 to reach a new record high.

Scottish government figures for Monday show 3,285 people had reported positive Covid-19 tests overnight.

This breaks the previous record of 2,999 new cases on Thursday, which topped the largest number of 2,969 recorded the previous day and the high of 2,649 on 7 January.

The rising cases are not impacting on Scottish schools as they closed for the summer last week.

In England, however, the newly appointed health secretary, Sajid Javid, yesterday said he had asked for “fresh advice” on the issue of school-bubble isolation amid rising numbers of pupils missing school to isolate.

The proportion of teachers that Public Health Scotland expects to be fully vaccinated by August was revealed in the latest minutes from the Covid-19 Education Recovery Group.

The minutes from a meeting earlier this month state: “The percentage of teachers vaccinated has now been analysed and it is predicted that, with the new ‘eight weeks between jabs’ regime now in place, 85 per cent of teachers will have been vaccinated by August this year, when schools start the next academic year.

“The background information required for monitoring for other school staff and for staff in ELC [early learning and childcare] settings is not yet available but this is being followed up.

“It was noted that it is still important that there is clear and regular messaging and communications about the protection levels and compliance with mitigating measures.”