Covid: Teachers should be given vaccine priority to reopen schools, says Joe Biden
Joe Biden has said teachers should be moved up the priority list for a coronavirus vaccine in order to reopen schools. Speaking at a CNN town hall from Milwaukee, the US president said he wanted to get children back in the classroom as soon as possible and hinted some schools should remain open over the summer to make up for lost time. Pressed on how he planned to get schools reopened amid high infection rates, Mr Biden said: “I think we should be vaccinating teachers. We should move them up in the hierarchy." In December, Biden had pledged to reopen "the majority" of American schools within his first 100 days in office, that timetable now appears to be backsliding.
He wouldn't give an exact date on when American children could return to school, as his policies to get kids back in classrooms has faced criticism from teaching unions.
His calls for teachers to receive priority for a Covid vaccine is something Labour has been called for in the UK.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said all school staff should be vaccinated during the February half term last month, saying they should receive doses alongside the priority five to nine groups.
The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation (JCVI) - which has been advising the government on which groups should be vaccinated first - were reportedly looking into whether key workers could receive the jab during the next phase of the vaccine rollout.
Senior Conservative ministers have said any decision on which groups should receive the vaccine next will be guided by the advice from the JCVI.
Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said on Tuesday: "We've gone back to the JVCI to ask exactly them to look at in the context of serious infection, hospitalisation and death, to look at professions - teachers, police officers, prison wardens, those who work in supermarkets - and see if that should be our focus because they come into much greater contact with people and therefore much greater volume of the virus.
"They will look at all the evidence and will advise us in the coming weeks, and then we will follow thorough with that advice to deliver phase two."
However ITV News understands that age, rather than occupation, is being considered as the main factor in deciding who is prioritised in the next phase of the coronavirus vaccine roll-out.
After the over 50s have been offered a jab - which the government aims to do by the end of April - the age-based approach may continue with consideration being given to ethnicity within each age group.
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