Making a statement on re-opening of schools in the country, State Minister Channa Jayasumana said priority will be given to schools in rural areas where there are students numbering below 100 when reopening schools.
He said the decision has been taken at the COVID-19 meeting based on the fact that the school children in rural areas hardly use public transport when coming to schools and added the use of public transport would be highly risky for students at this point of time.
Commenting on administering vaccines for school children, he said they were yet to receive the recommendations from the health experts to give vaccines to the school children.
"We will commence the vaccination rollout as soon as we get the green light from the experts,” the State Minister said.
However, the experts have recommended to provide Pfizer vaccine for the differently-abled children. Accordingly, the vaccination drive for such school children will kick off from next week.
Meanwhile, he said Sri Lanka will be getting a batch of Pfizer vaccines to the volume four million in October.
“We are hoping to use these vaccines for the school children accordingly,” he added. (Daily Mirror)