The Riga City Council spent €1.2 million in the summer on a vaccination-motivating program for educational institutions, but despite this program there are still a large proportion of education workers who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.
The most worrying situation is in pre-primary schools. Data by Friday, October 8, show that in Riga, 9% or around 300 of the total number of employees have not started vaccination or are not going to vaccinate against Covid-19 at all. The requirement to vaccinate is mandatory for education workers.
17 out of 149 kindergartens have significant problems, where the number of non-vaccinated workers is large enough to influence the functioning of the establishment. This means the working hours of some would have to be shortened or employees would have to be restructured. None of the establishments have announced closing the doors.
At schools 6%, or approximately 300, employees are unvaccinated. Ratinīka called on the education workers to be empathetic, to understand the common good, and to believe in science.
