On the basis of negotiations and appeals by the Czech Rectors’ Conference (CRC), UP has sent today the numbers of its academic and non-academic employees to the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports to serve for further negotiations and planning of the vaccination strategy of the Ministry of Health against Covid-19. Academic workers generally fall into the vaccination priority category I.B. in the Ministry of Health’s plans, and at this stage two priority groups are being discussed:
- Academics aged 55–70, representing 455 workers at UP (taking into account that colleagues aged 70 and over are already eligible for vaccinations and should be vaccinated before university teachers in general).
- Workers who come into physical contact with graduating Bachelor’s and Master’s students – i.e. 830 academics and 309 other workers at UP.
UP representatives to the CRC and the Czech Council of Higher Education Institutions are still pushing for non-academic workers to be included into the priority groups for vaccination. In the documents sent to the Ministry of Health, UP stated that it is necessary to vaccinate 1998 academic and 2024 non-academic workers. As soon more detailed information and instructions arrive from the Ministry of Health, the employees in question will be contacted.
Vaccination capacity for university employees at University Hospital Olomouc
Rector Jaroslav Miller and University Hospital Olomouc Director Prof Roman Havlík recently met to discuss vaccination capacities. To accommodate university employees, UHO is capable of vaccinating 2000–3000 extra persons during the work week. Based on that information, UP is planning to create a cluster of neighbouring universities (Tomas Bata University in Zlín, plus two private universities in the Olomouc region) to help in vaccinating their employees.
Debates are taking place on a practically daily basis. The CRC board, including the UP rector, met last week with the Ministries of Education and Health; today the rector met again with UHO; and tomorrow he will take part in a video conference with the Ministry of Education.
UP is taking active steps to vaccinate its employees; nevertheless, the negotiations have not been uncomplicated. Government policies are involved, and it is also necessary to take into account 1) that the groups most at-risk have not been vaccinated to date, and 2) that the overall vaccination strategy remains dependent on the number of vaccine doses which have been delivered. So we are asking for your patience in this respect, and as soon as we have any more details, you will be immediately informed.