With institutes for higher education in Kerala set to reopen from October 4, state health minister Veena George on Wednesday said that Covid-19 vaccination facilities would be made available to final year students of these institutes to get immunised against the disease before entering the colleges. The health minister said that all the final year students should be inoculated with at least one dose of the vaccine before the reopening of these institutions.
Earlier on Tuesday, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said higher education institutions such as technical, polytechnic and medical institutes would be allowed to operate in a bio-bubble model from October 4 for final year students of graduate and undergraduate courses. Vijayan also said that one dose of vaccine was mandatory and asked students awaiting their second doses to get it immediately.
Following this, the health minister said that the students would receive the vaccine doses free of cost from the government vaccination centres. Her remarks came on the same day as the daily new infections went past the 30,000-mark again after nearly a week’s gap.
Meanwhile, state minister for higher education and social justice R Bindu said that classes would be held in either two shifts or on alternate days according to the arrangement that was in place last year. She said that half of the students of each class would be taught during each such shift or on alternate days.
On Wednesday, 30,196 people tested positive for the disease in the state while 181 more people succumbed to the illness. So far, 4,283,494 people have been infected while the death toll breached the 22,000-mark on the day, according to data from a state health department’s medical bulletin. As many as 239,480 active cases of the disease are present in the state, according to the latest data. The Union health ministry’s dashboard showed that 30,434,537 doses of the vaccine have been administered to eligible beneficiaries in the state as of 7am on the day.
