PUNE: Over 10,000 students going abroad have been vaccinated so far in the district, after their enrolment started from May.
According to the district health office report, 9,117 students from the Pune civic limits, 1,411 from the Pimpri Chinchwad civic limits and 392 from the Pune rural areas have been vaccinated so far.
Suryakant Devkar, the chief immunization officer of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), told TOI that the vaccination process for the students heading abroad was getting a good response. “We are offering students Covishield in a designated civic vaccination site on a dedicated day of the week,” he said.
On the vaccine gap for such students, Devkar said the Union government had said in June the gap between two Covishield doses for those undertaking international travel for educational purposes or employment opportunities could be reduced to less than 84 days after the date of the first dose. In these cases, the second dose is being administered after 28 days from the first dose.
The Pune district on Thursday received 3.26 lakh Covid vaccine doses — 2.34 lakh doses of Covishield and 32,610 doses of Covaxin. An official from the district health office said this would allow them to conduct mega vaccination drives on Friday and Saturday across the district.
On Thursday, 59,740 beneficiaries were vaccinated across the district, taking the total number of beneficiaries getting the first dose to 66.56 lakh and those receiving the second dose to 27.26 lakh. The district health officials are targeting to cross the one-crore-mark by September-end through special drives.
