Tamil Nadu colleges directed to vaccinate eligible students: Health minister

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Minister for Medical and Family Welfare, Ma Subramanian on Sunday said all educational institutions in the state have been directed to ensure that students above 18 years of age are vaccinated, in order to be allowed to attend offline classes.

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The Minister's statement comes in the wake of clusters of COVID cases reported among students in Anna University campus. "All the (college) department heads have been directed to ensure that eligible students whether in engineering, arts and science or veterinary, medical colleges, to get inoculated," he said.

Subramanian was talking to reporters after taking part in the Rotary International event in Mahabalipuram near here. Asked about the nine students of Anna University campus testing Covid-19 positive, he replied that they were fine and undergoing treatment at the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Guindy.

Meanwhile, a medical bulletin by the health department said the state registered 674 new coronavirus cases aggregating to 27,35,389 while the toll mounted to 36,612 with 13 more deaths. Recoveries outnumbered new cases with 708 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 26,91,054 leaving 7,723 active infections, it said.

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A total of 1,01,165 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 5.54 crore. Chennai and Coimbatore accounted for the majority of new infections with 116 and 102 respectively, while the remaining was spread across other districts.

As many as 22 districts reported less than 10 Covid-19 infections. Ramanathapuram and Tenkasi recorded zero cases, it added.