Medical workers collect information from passports of foreign journalists waiting to be inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine, at a makeshift clinic set up to vaccinate foreign journalists working in the capital, at the Chaoyang Museum of Urban Planning in Beijing on March 23, 2021. (NOEL CELIS / AFP)

BEIJING - China's Ministry of Education has issued a notice to ask local education departments and universities to proactively cooperate with local vaccination work.

The document urged local education departments and universities to join hands with local health departments in making reasonable plans for on-campus inoculations, thus organizing the vaccination of local schools in batches in an orderly manner.

Vaccination must be done upon informed consent, voluntarily and free of charge, the Ministry of Education said

Vaccination must be done upon informed consent, voluntarily and free of charge, the notice said.

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It called on schools to provide school infirmaries, stadiums and other facilities, or set up tents, as temporary vaccination sites in accordance with requirements.

The document also called for greater publicity and mobilization on campus, asking local education authorities and universities to dispel doubts by publicizing the positive role of vaccines in protecting personal health and controlling the epidemic, along with other scientific information on vaccination.

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