The Ministry of Education announced that all students age 5 -12 will have to be vaccinated in order to attend classes. The Ministry of Education will be providing space for vaccinations at schools for all students to be administered by the proper authorities.
This comes after PANI, the National Children’s Trust, has stated that they will intervene to mandate vaccines if parents or guardians object.
In a related declaration the Ministry will also require adults wishing to enter and educational facility will also have to show proof of vaccination.
Costa Rica is in the process of receiving the proper doses for children and plans on getting the vaccines out to the students as soon as possible.
Also, the National Vaccination and Epidemiology Commission agreed that children with high risk conditions will be called by the medical centers where they are monitored to receive the vaccine. This group includes patients with: cancer, sickle cell disease, heart disease, infantile cerebral palsy, myelomeningocele, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and diabetes.
It also includes children with cystic fibrosis, severe asthma (hospital control), oxygen-dependent, tracheostomized, patients with primary immunodeficiencies, rheumatic autoimmune disease (juvenile idiopathic arthritis, juvenile dermatomyositis, lupus, systemic sclerosis, vasculitis), HIV infection and organ transplant recipients.
Minors with Down Syndrome or suffering from tuberculosis may receive the dose against COVID-19 at any authorized vaccinator’s office.