Phnom Penh:​ In a further sign that Phnom Penh will soon reopen its secondary schools, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports has announced that booster shots will begin for all levels of staff from Monday. The announcement was made on Friday afternoon and states that all personnel contracted to the Ministry will be eligible. This includes teachers at all public schools, but not those at private schools.

The booster shots will be rolled out over the whole of next week at the National Pediatric Hospital. AstraZeneca doses are to be used, with public school teachers and other education officials having been inoculated with Sinopharm or Sinovac earlier this year.

The Ministry of Education has been steadily planning for the eventual reopening of schools, starting with secondary schools, in the last quarter of the year. This was the main reason behind the Prime Minister’s decision to rollout vaccines for children between the ages of 12 and 17. Over 60% of those children have already received at least one dose of Sinovac. Second doses, administered 21 days after the first, began last weekend.