Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu informed on Thursday that, until March 16, a number of 135,000 (38%) education employees were vaccinated against COVID, the percentage of immunized teachers being almost 50%, according to AGERPRES.
"As of Tuesday, we had 135,000 vaccinated education employees. That is over 38%. If we refer to the vaccinated teachers, the percentage is close to 50%. (...) This process will continue," the minister said within the event "Remedial education for vulnerable children - direct interventions in response to current needs," organized online by Save the Children Romania.
According to Cimpeanu, some parents did not give their consent for the pupils to be checked with quick tests to detect the infection with the new coronavirus, motivating that these are "invasive" especially in the case of the small children.
He recalled that three weeks ago, the Ministry of Health reported that of the 1,150,000 rapid antigen tests distributed to test pupils and education staff, only 5,000 had been used, and that was "more than worrying".
In his opinion, one solution would be to use non-invasive saliva-based tests that are used in many schools in European countries.
According to the minister, sanitary health rules are observed in schools "the most".