BENGALURU: Students aged above 18 years and enrolled in degree and post-graduate colleges in the state will be given Covid-19 vaccination on their campuses soon.
The state has about 20 lakh students and under-45 college staffers.
“We want to complete the first round of vaccination for this group by the first week of July, subject to vaccine availability,” said Arundhati Chandrashekar, mission director, National Health Mission.
After the high-level expert committee for prevention and management of third wave of Covid submitted its interim report, the government said colleges for students aged 18 years and above will be opened first.
This was followed by a meeting where the chief minister directed health department authorities to initiate a vaccination campaign for this target group.
In a circular issued on June 23, the government directed all districts to collect data on degree colleges, students and staffers and hand it to the health department.
Also, the health department directed districts to appoint a nodal officer in each college for the campaign and the nodal officer to communicate with the respective reproduction and children health officer in charge of Covid vaccination in each district.
The nodal officers must communicate to the beneficiaries.
The colleges will be considered ‘workplace vaccination sites’ as per the Centre’s guidelines.
“If 45-plus college staffers have not taken vaccination, then they will also be included in the drive.
The number of students will be no less than 15 lakh,” said Arundhati.
After reopening of colleges, the committee had suggested periodic review by local authorities.
A district-level review committee comprising members from departments of health and education, teachers, school/college management and parent groups will look into the situation.