Campus vaccination may end as 1.8 lakh college-goers get jabs

Having vaccinated over 1.8 lakh students across Bengaluru, the BBMP is considering wrapping up its on-campus inoculation drive.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta confirmed that the demand for vaccination among students has waned, suggesting that a sizeable number of the target group has been covered.

“In the past month, we vaccinated over 1.8 lakh students. The demand for vaccine among the student community has come down and we are considering to wrap up the vaccination drives,” Gupta said.

The BBMP’s estimate suggests that Bengaluru has a student population of nearly three lakh.

“We’ve covered nearly 60 per cent of the student population going by our records. However, a few students have left the city owing to the pandemic. Colleges are trying to bring them back for vaccination if they are not vaccinated in their native places,” D Randeep, Special Commissioner (Health) said.

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Randeep added that the civic body is planning to conclude the vaccination drive in the remaining institutions in the coming days.

Going further, the BBMP will resume vaccination of its priority group belonging to the 18-44 age group, according to officials. “We’ll continue with the vaccination of people under the priority group. Also, many of them over 45 years will now start coming in to receive their second dose. We will have to concentrate on that as well,” Randeep said.

Asked if the civic body will open up vaccination for everyone above 18 years, Randeep said they were awaiting the state government’s approval.

“Probably, once we intimate the government that we're done vaccinating college students, we might get a go-ahead to vaccinate everyone over the age of 18,” he said.