Vaccination drives for senior students from October 21 onwards
Vaccinating A/L and university students will take place before schools and universities are reopened for senior students and universities.
A vaccination drive targeting university students will take place from October 11 to 15 in all state universities, an official at the University Grants Commission (UGC) said.
UGC Chairman Sampath Amaratunge said the UGC expects all students to be vaccinated by the end of October, so that academic activities can begin in November.
“University students between the ages of 20 to 30 can obtain their COVID-19 vaccine from the university nearest to their residential area,” he said.
Vaccinating A/L students (18-19 year old group) will begin on October 21, the Head of the National Operations Centre for the Prevention of the Spread of COVID-19 Shavendra Silva said.
He said on Friday, President Rajapaksa instructed the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to administer the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for 18 and 19 year old school students. Vaccinations will take place in the respective schools and those who have just left school can obtain the vaccine at the nearest Medical Officer of Health (MOH) office.
The Government Medical Officer’s Association said the Government has agreed on a proposal to vaccinate healthy students between 15 to 19 years old with all students being given the US manufactured vaccine.
The Education Ministry this week announced that primary schools with a student population of less than 200 will re-open on October 21. Reopening of schools will take place in four stages with vaccinations being the first stage.
According to the 2020 School Census, there are 1439 schools in the country with a student population of 50 or less in each school, 1523 schools with 51-100 students and 2169 schools with 101-200 students.
Many of these schools are located in rural areas of the Kurunegala, Badulla, Kegalle, Nuwara-eliya and Ratnapura districts, and a majority of their students have no access to online education. -