Briones: Use schools as vaccination sites only as ‘last resort’

Education Secretary Leonor Briones. PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY –– Education Secretary Leonor Briones will only allow the use of school buildings as vaccination sites as a last resort.

“Based on our existing policy, it (using schools as vaccination sites) should be carefully assessed,” said Briones in a virtual press conference with Central Visayas reporters on Monday.

“School buildings should only be used as a last resort if there is no other place,” she added.

According to Briones, schools are reserved as evacuation sites during calamities and disasters.

“If it will be used as vaccination sites, then there would be no more place for emergency evacuations,” she said.

If an area has no other place for vaccination except the school, she said the situation should be assessed and coordinated with the Department of Health (DOH) and the concerned local governments.

“We are willing to help, but our primordial concern is to protect our children, teachers, and staff,” she said.

Briones said she would also not allow teachers to be vaccinators in the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

Citing discussions with the DOH, Briones said teachers could only help inform learners on the government’s vaccination program.

“Teachers are trained to teach, not to administer vaccines. The biggest contribution for teachers is to inform people about the vaccines,” she said.

LZB