Maharashtra begins a special vaccination drive for college students today

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra will launch a special vaccination drive against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) for college students aged 18 to 25 on Monday. Teachers and other staff members will also be immunised as part of the drive, which will run until November 2.

Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope, while announcing the special inoculation drive on October 21, said that vaccination, especially among the youth, is the need of the hour as they have to travel the most. Tope added that those universities and colleges which perform well in this inoculation drive will be rewarded.

Colleges in Maharashtra reopened on October 20 amid an improvement in the overall pandemic situation. However, the state government said that all colleges and universities should still offer online classes for those students who are unable to attend physical classes.

There are nearly four million college students across Maharashtra, including all those pursuing higher education, technical education, medical studies or are enrolled in non-affiliated and private colleges. Earlier, the state government planned to register the details of all such students and their vaccination status and accordingly plan the drive in their colleges.

Authorities in Maharashtra have administered 95,165,513 vaccine doses so far of which 65,519,863 beneficiaries have received the first dose while the remaining 29,645,650 are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Meanwhile, the state’s caseload on Sunday climbed to 6,602,961 after 1,410 new cases of Covid-19 were registered in the last 24 hours. More than 1,500 patients recovered and 18 died due to the viral disease, taking the cumulative count of recoveries and deaths to 6,435,439 and 140,016 respectively. There are currently 23,894 active patients across the state.