Although the Municipal Secretary of Education informed that it would require proof of vaccination for Covid-19, as well as for other diseases, Mayor Eduardo Paes guaranteed that unvaccinated children will not be barred from schools in Rio de Janeiro.
“You have a vaccination card on your registration note, but a child will be admitted to any school in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Children cannot be held accountable for any wrongful decision made by their father or mother. We want children in the classroom”, explained Paes.
The Municipal Secretary of Education had informed that it would require the vaccination card from students, as is done every year, and that it includes the immunizer against Covid-19, as it becomes available. “Students responsible for students with outdated booklets are subject to appropriate sanctions in line with the Statute of Children and Adolescents”, read the note, which recalled that the focus at the moment is control of the pandemic.
However, after the mayor’s statement, secretary Renan Ferreirinha explained that the enrollment of children for 2022 is already underway and confirmed that unvaccinated children will not be prevented from attending classes.
“We are finalizing this process (enrollment), where we have checks with the families themselves. The Covid vaccine has not even been included by the Government in the National Immunization Plan. So, our focus, as a city hall, at this moment is to move forward with vaccination”, said Ferreirinha.
The secretary explained that, in the near future, the immunization against Covid will also appear in the vaccination cards. “What was disclosed is that every year, at the time of enrollment, we check the proof of vaccination. And that, as the Covid vaccine arrived, it would have, for example, if a student of ours enrolled in the middle of the year and the PNI included Covid for that, is very natural. There is no change from what has always been done”, said the secretary.
The city hall will carry out awareness campaigns to encourage adherence to the campaign in schools. Some of them will be vaccination points. According to Ferreirinha, unvaccinated children, neither against the coronavirus, nor against any other disease, will not be prevented from studying. “The enrollment of a child has never been harmed. What may happen is a sanction to the father through Guardianship Council and other situations, but the child cannot be harmed. She has a constitutional right to education,” he explained.
A survey of CNN showed that Vitória, Espírito Santo, Palmas, Tocantins, Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, Teresina, Piauí, Curitiba, Paraná, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Recife, Pernambuco, São Luís, Maranhão, Goiânia, in Goiás, and São Paulo do not require proof of vaccine and do not intend to adopt the measure.
vaccination campaign
With the arrival of infant doses in Brazil, Paes said that the children’s immunization schedule must be maintained. The forecast is that the application will start on Monday (17). “If the Federal Government sends more doses, we can do it in a week: vaccinate all children. The four-week schedule is due to the perspective of dose arrivals. I think starting Monday is well underway,” he concluded.
The city hall of Maricá, in the Metropolitan Region, informed that the application of vaccines in children already starts on Friday (14), in an indigenous village.
Reference: CNN Brasil
