Pace of Covid-19 vaccination among school, college students to be accelerated: Odisha Min

With the daily Covid-19 cases showing an upward trend in Odisha, the School and Mass Education Department has now decided to speed up Covid-19 vaccination of students between age groups of 12 to 17 years.

School and Mass Education Minister, Samir Ranjan Dash on Tuesday said that efforts have begun for accelerating the pace of Covid-19 vaccination.

As per the data shared by the I&PR department, the State registered 113 new cases in the past 24 hours. Of the new cases, 15 cases are in the age group of 0-18 years, 67 cases were detected from quarantine and 46 were local contacts. The number of active cases in the State has jumped to 517.

Recently, the Health Department had written to the School and Mass Education Department in this regard. “Our department will cooperate with the health department in accelerating the pace of vaccinating school and college students in the state,” said Dash.

In its letter issued on June 24, the health department had urged the School and Mass Education department to instruct District Education Officers (DEOs) to identify the students in schools and colleges, who are yet to receive their first dose of vaccination and who are already due for the second dose, but not yet vaccinated.

The DEOs were asked to work with CDM and PHOs of the districts to prepare micro plan for conducting vaccination sessions in schools and colleges for achieving 100 percent coverage.

The School and Mass Education Minister further informed that already the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) has taken elaborate measures for the publication of matriculation results in July first week.