Odisha Govt Appeals Teachers & Staff Of Higher Educational Institutes To Take COVID-19 Jab

Bhubaneswar: With more students, faculty and staff of colleges as well as universities testing positive for COVID-19 after the reopening and return of students from different places, the Odisha government has appealed teachers and staff of the educational institutions to vaccinate themselves at the earliest.

The Higher Education department has appealed the teachers and staff of colleges and universities to avail the opportunity of vaccination process as per eligibility.

The Centre has announced to start vaccination for 45 years and above age group from April 1. The co-morbidity condition will not apply in this case, the Health Ministry had stated.

The immunisation drive for senior citizens and those above the age of 45 but with co-morbities was started on March 1.

Highlighting this, the Higher Education department instructed all eligible teachers and staff to vaccinate themselves, either in government facilities (free) or in authorised private facilities by paying Rs 250 per dose.

The department further said, as government facilities are likely to be crowded, people teachers can avail the private facilities and take the jab early.

At places where there are no authorised private facilities, the educational institutions have been asked to provide list of teachers and staff to Collector/Sub-Collector/nearby vaccination hospital in-charge to vaccinate them on priority, the department added.

Moreover, the institutes have also been asked to allow teachers/staff off-from-duty for some hours in case they go for vaccination on working day.

Appealing all to take the vaccination seriously and prevent a resurgence of COVID-19 in Odisha, the department said non-regular/adhoc/guest faculties and outsourced employees such as hostel/canteen staff, security guards, etc should also be vaccinated.