Tamil Nadu govt mandates Covid vaccination for college students to attend offline classes
Recent reports from the public health directorate and the Chennai city corporation highlighted risks of the infection spreading from canteens and dining areas of educational institutes.
FollowChennai: The Tamil Nadu government on Friday made Covid vaccination mandatory for students above 18 years of age to attend college classes. Addressing media persons after attending a high-level meeting of educationists here, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the Secretary, Higher Education will write letters to all the educational institutions directing them to make it mandatory for students above 18 years of age to get at least one dose of the vaccine administered to them.
Subramanian asked college authorities to verify and ensure 100% double dose vaccinations. Recent reports from the public health directorate and the Chennai city corporation highlighted risks of the infection spreading from canteens and dining areas of educational institutes.
As per inputs from IANS, the Health Minister mentioned that till now 46% of Engineering students have been vaccinated with the first dose. Further, as of now, only 12% of students have been vaccinated with both doses of Covid-19. The total number of people in the state who received both doses of Covid-19 vaccination is 7,43,95,424. Further, the number of people who received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is 4,68,99,8701 cases.
He also highlighted that the college administration would be verifying the student list to ensure that 100% of the students are vaccinated. As per IANS, “There have been reports of a higher possibility and risk of spread of infection in college canteens and dining area of the educational institutions.”
Referring to the 11 Covid clusters at educational institutes across the state in the last three months, the minister said, “All students who are above the age of 18 should be vaccinated. The Greater Chennai Corporation will start special camps for students at colleges on Saturdays.” All cases recorded in the educational institutes were linked to the Delta variant of Covid-19.
The minister’s directives also state the mandatory use of masks for everyone both inside the classrooms and outside, disposable containers at college canteens and regulated access of students inside canteens in different batches to reduce the risk of infection. It also banned colleges from holding events, including cultural programmes and games like football and hockey matches without the prior approval of the government.
