Coronavirus: unvaccinated Hong Kong teachers could face legal consequences if they show up at school in violation of new rules
- Starting late next month, all staff in local schools must be inoculated against the coronavirus and use the government’s ‘Leave Home Safe’ app
- Those who cannot enter campus because they are unvaccinated and do not have a medical exemption will be considered absent without leave, senior official says
Teachers who have not received Covid-19 shots could face legal consequences for entering campuses from late February under a recently announced expansion of Hong Kong’s vaccine bubble to cover all local schools, a senior education official has warned.
All staff, visitors and service providers will soon be barred from entering school grounds if they fail to show proof of vaccination and use the government’s “Leave Home Safe” risk-notification app under new rules announced on Thursday evening.
“For school staff, if they cannot enter the school premises, it means they cannot perform their job duties. This will be deemed an unjustified absence from work,” Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said on Friday. “If they insist on going to school [without vaccination proof], it will be regarded as entering the school premises without permission.”
Unvaccinated staff who entered campuses anyway could face disciplinary sanctions or legal consequences, Choi said.
“It might be difficult for schools to implement [the measures] if we allow too much flexibility,” she told a radio programme. “Our goal is to protect students’ health and reduce the transmission risk. I hope that [the public], especially parents, can understand that.”
Schools would be required to keep a register of vaccination records, and would also be discouraged from granting leave to unvaccinated staff who could not provide evidence of a valid medical exemption, such as being pregnant, she said.