More than 70% of eligible students in the 15-17 age group in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Ranipet and Tirupattur districts have taken their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine as on Saturday 7 p.m. With this, 2,26,009 eligible students in the four districts have been given first dose of the vaccine.
Of the four districts, Tiruvannmalai district topped with 90,076 students, including 30,876 from Cheyyar health block, taking the first dose since Monday accounting for 87% coverage. At present, Tiruvannamalai has 1,600 schools, including 545 high and higher secondary schools, with 1.27 lakh students in Class IX to XII. Of these, 1,13,800, including 56,996 girls, are eligible for the vaccination. About 95% of the 11,857 teachers handling Classes IX to XII have been vaccinated. A help desk with helpline numbers (04175-250814; 04175-253845) has been set up at the Tiruvannamalai Collectorate for the public to report any negligence by the school authorities. Tiruvannamalai Collector B. Murugesh visited some of the schools on Saturday.
In Ranipet district, there are 45,755 students, including 23,114 girls, from Classes X to XII, studying in 230 schools with Arakkonam taluk having the highest number of students, 7423, in the 15-17 age group, eligible for vaccination. Ranipet Collector D. Bhasakara Pandian told The Hindu that more than 70% of students had been covered so far. “Rest of the students will be vaccinated in the next few days. Motivational sessions are also held before students are allowed to take the jab,” he said.
In Vellore district, 53,751 students in the 15-17 age group are eligible for vaccination. Vellore Collector P. Kumaravel Pandian inspected the schools on Saturday. The Vellore City Corporation has shortlisted 72 schools covering 24,000 students. As on Saturday, the civic body vaccinated 20,400 students accounting for 85% coverage with the first dose. Tirupattur district has enrolled 47,700 students in the 15-17 age group, covering 146 schools for the jab. Till Saturday, 34,088 students were vaccinated which accounted for 71.5% of the coverage.
All the four districts had set January 8 as the deadline to cover the maximum number of students. Grievance meetings have been suspended in all the four districts.
More beds
In Tiruvannamalai, 800 additional beds were provided at the Government District Headquarters Hospital and Government Polytechnic College as COVID-19 care centres on Saturday.
The Vellore Corporation has declared Babu Rao Street and Sukkaiah Vathiyar Street, opposite to CMC, as containment roads after more than 10 cases were reported in each of these two streets. Both the streets have over 250 lodges with mainly patients and their relatives from other States who visit the CMC for treatment.