BENGALURU: With the state government considering opening higher educational institutions, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan on Thursday said all college students above 18 years, their teaching staff and non-teaching staff will be considered as a priority group to administer COVID vaccine.
The DCM, who also holds the higher education portfolio, said vaccination for the above groups would be taken up in July in the respective colleges as per the guidelines of the central government after consulting with the officers.
"Inoculation campaigns will be arranged in the colleges. Validation letters issued by the respective institutions need to be submitted before getting vaccinated. Head of the institution and another officer will be appointed as nodal officers in every institution," he was quoted as saying by his office in a release.
In response to a question, Narayan said offline classes will be started once all the students are vaccinated with the first dose.
"Teaching, learning process has not stopped and it is being continued through digital mode and attendance is mandatory for online classes also," he informed.
The DCM said existing vaccines are effective against Delta plus variant of the virus also.
The state has reported 3,979 new cases of COVID-19 and 138 deaths, taking the total number of infections to 28.23 lakh and toll to 34,425, the health department said on Thursday.
The day also saw 9,768 discharges, continuing to outnumber the fresh cases, taking the total number of recoveries in the state so far to 26,78,473.
Out of 3,979 new cases reported, 969 were from Bengaluru Urban, as the city saw 3,176 discharges and 14 deaths.
Total number of active cases in the state is at 1,10,523.
While the positivity rate for the day stood at 2.46 per cent, case fatality rate (CFR) was at 3.46 per cent.
Out of 138 deaths reported on Thursday, 22 were from Mysuru, Dakshina Kannada 15, Bengaluru Urban 14, Ballari and Dharwad 10, Hassan 9, followed by others.
Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 969, Dakshina Kannada 498, Mysuru 404, Hassan 336, followed by others.
Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 12,09,073, followed by Mysuru 1,64,018 and Tumakuru 1,14,265.
Cumulatively a total of 3.33 crore samples have been tested in the state so far, out of which 1,61,287 were tested on Thursday alone.