January is too soon to resume face-to-face classes, maybe they should begin in June at the start of school year 2022-23, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said Saturday, November 13.
It is important to make sure that the students will be safe first, Zubiri said at a press conference in Bacolod City.
The problem is the COVID-19 vaccination program outside Metro Manila is slow, he said.
He said while vaccination of minors aged 12 to 17 has started, children in grades one to three are not covered.
Maybe there is a need to open up the COVID-19 vaccination drive to start with children 5 years old and up, he said.
In Europe and the United States, smaller Pfizer doses are already being administered on children aged 5 years old and up, Zubiri said.
Zubiri said he is not for mandatory vaccination but local governments can provide incentives to convince their constituents to get inoculated.
The ramping up of the COVID-19 vaccination drive to save lives is important, Zubiri said.
The senator said his father, Bukidnon Governor Jose Maria Zubiri, who is 81 years old survived COVID-19 with just a cold because he had been fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
He stressed the need to get vaccinated because he has a lot of friends who have only been taking Ivermectin who have died.
Zubiri said he and Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and they have not turned into zombies.”*