He has called a meeting with Samant and senior officers from the higher education department to hold a discussion on the issue on Thursday. (Facebook/Rajesh Tope) The state government is likely to start inoculating unvaccinated students on the premises of their respective colleges within the next eight days, said Uday Samant, state higher and technical education minister, on Wednesday.
The announcement comes on the first day of re-opening of colleges after over 18 months of closure due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. On the occasion, Samant welcomed the students and laid emphasis on fully vaccinating all students of 18 years of age and above.
“To remove the fear (of Covid) from the minds of the students, they need to be fully vaccinated. The issue of getting students vaccinated has been discussed with chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and state’s tourism/environment minister Aaditya Thackeray. We will have a meeting with the health department too,” said Samant.
“We will conduct a special drive for all unvaccinated students at their colleges in Maharashtra. We plan to start the drive in seven to eight days,” he added.
Rajesh Tope, state health minister, said that he is still deliberating on the matter.
He has called a meeting with Samant and senior officers from the higher education department to hold a discussion on the issue on Thursday.
“Tomorrow, at 12pm, I have called for a video conference with all the education officers where we will chalk out the plan. We need to mobilise these students. This will help in improving the vaccination (rate) among students, especially those who are most vulnerable,” said Tope.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
