Chennai: The Tamilnadu government has made it mandatory for all college students to be fully vaccinated in order to be allowed to attend offline classes.
The direction comes days after a report showed only 46 per cent engineering students above 18 years have taken their first dose of Covid-19 vaccines, adding, only 12 per cent have taken both the doses.
Health Minister M Subramanian said the Director of technical education and the Director of collegiate education will write to colleges asking them to ensure only vaccinated students are permitted.
Over the past few weeks, the public health department and the Greater Chennai Corporation have found that in most educational institutions the risk of spread of infection is high in the canteens and dining area. New regulations will make it mandatory for colleges to ensure that students are served food in disposable containers. ‘To avoid overcrowding, colleges must send them to canteens in batches,’ Subramanian said.
The Minister also said that student get-togethers and functions must not be held without prior permission from the Health Department. He also said that students must bring in food in disposable containers and be sent to canteens in batches.
An alert was sounded to higher education institutions in Tamilnadu to follow Covid-19 safety norms after ten students of an Anna University college in Chennai have tested positive for Covid-19.
The health department conducted Covid test for 300 students of Alagappa College of Technology after finding out a hostel student had contracted with Covid-19.
‘Out of 300 students who tested on Wednesday, nine tested positive. They are asymptomatic and admitted to King Institute. The Chennai Corporation will test remaining 463 PG and UG students in the hostel,’ Subramanian told reporters after inspecting the college.
He said the samples from the cluster would be sent for genome sequencing to check the virus variant.
He also expressed concern over educational institutes emerging as Covid clusters. Students don’t wear masks in the canteen, and sit close to each other, causing the virus to spread fast, the minister said.