HISD

Houston ISD vaccinates 300 employees for COVID-19

Sunday, January 10, 2021

When will Houston ISD teachers be vaccinated?

The employees were pre-approved to get the first dose of the Moderna vaccine Saturday. Only 300 of the 29,000 workers were vaccinated this time around.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Approximately 300 Houston ISD employees received the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Saturday as district leaders plan for teachers to eventually be included.

The vaccinations were given to workers who were pre-approved and included educators 65 and older with certain medical conditions, school police officers, nurses and clinical staff.

At Thursday night's HISD board meeting, administrators said nurses at schools across the district were starting to get their COVID-19 vaccines and would be trained on how to administer doses.

Interim Superintendent Granita Lathan said the district was working closely with the Houston Health Department to coordinate a rollout plan.

School nurses who've been trained will be able to give the vaccine to teachers and other school staff when more doses become available, officials said.

At the meeting, the school board also discussed a partnership with Kroger that is allowing an additional 300 shots to be administered to HISD staff Saturday. Staff members who qualify for these shots have already been notified.

ABC13 answered vaccine-related questions on specific Houston-area hospitals, major pharmacies and Phase 1B patients.

The first confirmed case of the variant strain of COVID-19 in Texas was identified in Harris County Thursday. Board member Anne Sung brought the topic up at the meeting.

"I think with this new strain that's more transmissible, we need to do everything we can to protect our students and our staff," she said.

The district says the board voted unanimously to extend paid leave to employees who are required to quarantine due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. Those benefits initially expired at the end of 2020.