Ben Anson/ The Santiago Times Staff

Vaccinations have started in Chile’s educational community. The first teacher to receive the vaccine was Gloria Alfaro Segovia, a kindergarten teacher at the Escuela República de Alemania. Her 106-year-old mother was also immunized as part of the mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19.

At the Salvador Sanfuentes school in the Santiago community, Health Minister Enrique Paris and Education Minister Raul Figueroa began the mass vaccination process against COVID-19 for workers from the educational community.

 “We are complying with the mandate of the President of the Republic who announced the start of vaccinations for the educational community from today (onwards). At the beginning of this process, we want to give security to teachers, parents and also children so that they can return to classes in March voluntarily and safely, “Figueroa said.

Health Minister Enrique Paris also expressed his wishes for the success of a global immunization campaign. “The massive vaccination against COVID-19 is about to exceed over 2 million vaccinated in Chile, which will mark an important and transcendent milestone in the history of this fight against the pandemic”, he emphasized.

This campaign stage will have immunized 513,621 education officials, including teachers, preschool educators, educational assistants, directors, administrators and food-handlers. Vaccinations began with those over 60 years of age.

Figueroa hopes to announce the complete vaccination calendar for the remaining education assistants later this week.