Degree college student vaccination drive likely to be extended in Karnataka

A staff member from Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayan’s office said that the vaccination drive was hampered due to the low availability of vaccines.
Healthcare worker drawing COVID-19 vaccine
Healthcare worker drawing COVID-19 vaccine
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The deadline to vaccinate degree college students will likely be extended as the state is yet to vaccinate all the students. A source from the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayan’s office said that the government is mulling over extending the deadline as students are yet to be vaccinated due to the availability issue of the vaccine. “The earlier plan was to vaccinate the students by July 7, however, due to the low availability of the vaccines, we have not been able to vaccinate the students as we expected to. The drive to vaccinate degree college students will likely be extended. It may likely be extended until July 15,” he added.

The data provided by the government showed that until July 1, out of 4.9 lakh students enrolled in government and aided colleges, across the state only 2.26 lakh students have been vaccinated with the first dose. As many as 13,388 students from Bengaluru had received vaccination until July 1, according to the government.

When quizzed about how will the government manage to vaccinate the students on short notice, the staff said that it will be based on the availability of the vaccines. “Our priority is to vaccinate the students, at least administer the first dose to all the students. The colleges and universities will resume physical classes only after the students have received vaccines and we’ll likely be able to achieve it by mid-July,” he told TNM.

The Minister who also holds Higher Education portfolio had announced a new vaccination drive on June 23, ‘Marali Collegige’ (Back to College) that proposed to administer COVID-19 vaccines to college-going students. He had then announced to vaccinate students.

On July 1, the Minister directed the Vice-Chancellors of all the Universities to inoculate the students by July 7. In a virtual meeting, the Minister had also said that the drive can be extended by two-three days. He had earlier said that students were being vaccinated on priority so as to resume physical classes for college-going students. The date of opening of offline classes depends on the success of this vaccination drive and the government is ready to extend all cooperation in this regard, he’d told.

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