ADMINISTRATORS at Kingston College (KC) last week expressed delight that a one-day COVID-19 vaccination blitz at the high school’s North Street campus was a success, moving students one step closer to a return to physical classrooms and competing in sports again.

The blitz, which had initially targeted students and staff, was eventually extended to their relatives as well who had to pre-register for the process.

The KC Old Boys’ Association, which fully endorsed the blitz, also had members and their relatives signing up to take their first of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. As was anticipated, scores of unregistered people showed up to have the vaccine administered to them and their relatives.

Vaccination was set to begin at 9:00 am but started earlier because tools and personnel were in position and ready to accept people who started arriving from as early as 7:00 am.

After receiving his jab, one KC student smiled as he told the Jamaica Observer that he did not feel a thing.

Members of KC’s Parent-Teacher Association were praised for helping to make the process smooth, which resulted in no crowd gathering outside the gates for long periods.

Vice-Principal Marguarita Douglas Hall said that KC was pressing to have at least 65 per cent of the school population vaccinated in anticipation of the reopening of schools for face-to-face classes, as students have been falling behind.

“We need to have face-to-face classes again because we have some students who have been suffering because they have not managed to come online. You have some students who need to be in front of a teacher, and seeing a teacher and with the teacher being able to see the students and look in their faces and look at their body language,” Douglas Hall said.

“We need to see the body language to see what is happening with you. That, you don’t get online — especially since they don’t have to have their cameras on. Some can’t afford to turn on their cameras because of data. They don’t have that interaction with the teachers at all,” she said.

“We are fulfilling some of the objectives of the Ministry of Education in getting at least 65 per cent of the school population vaccinated,” the vice-principal added while highlighting that KC has just under 2,000 students on register and close to 200 ancillary and administrative staff.

PTA President Peta-Gaye Wynter said once headmaster Dave Myrie had confirmed the blitz, the members of the PTA automatically placed “all hands on deck”. She expressed an eagerness to have academics and sporting activities return to normal.

“We are a major stakeholder here at Kingston College, where parents and students are concerned, and so we gave all the support required because it is important for students to come back out face to face as they have been away for a year,” Wynter said.

“As you know, our focus is education first and then sports second, but we encourage all our different disciplines to get involved in the vaccination so we can resume that level of normality for our teams to get back into training properly and back into the groove of things. The students are not as active as they should be and how we want them to be. We want to have the children doing sports and their academics [at the] same time,” Wynter added.