The Bengal government set to start Covid-19 vaccination drives for students enrolled in 550 colleges and 40 universities across the state in early October in a bid to open the institutions for in-person classes in November.

District magistrates and chief medical officers were instructed by senior health and education officials in Calcutta via a videoconference on Thursday afternoon to send a database of college and varsity students’ vaccination status within this week and start the process of vaccinating them “as soon as possible”.

Colleges, universities and schools in Bengal have been officially closed since the first outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

“District officials have been asked to send students' vaccination statuses within this week and to chalk out a plan for vaccinating students with special priority. The drive was conceived after a recent communication from the higher education department expressing their desire to open campuses of certain educational institutions soon,” said a senior health department official in Calcutta.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee in August had said the state government would try to open schools and colleges after Puja vacations on alternate days in an effort to wait out a possible third wave.

“After Puja vacations, we will try to reopen schools and colleges on alternate days,” Mamata had said at Nabanna after a meeting with the state's global advisory board on Covid-19 headed by Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee on August 5 this year.

Sources said several colleges and universities have sent a primary database of students to the higher education department, in order to help the health department assess the needs of vaccine doses.

“We have asked colleges and universities to give a database with the status of students’ vaccination as many students may have taken jabs on their own. As soon as we get the database ready, we will not delay a day to start the vaccination,” said Bidhan Ray, Birbhum district magistrate.

There are over 550 colleges and some 40 universities in Bengal. Nearly 10 lakh students are waiting for both doses. According to a primary survey, around 3.5 lakh students have got the first dose.

Under a tentative plan, the government has asked college and university authorities to open vaccination camps on campuses before Durga Puja and invite students with a schedule based on the daily capacity of doses.

“Health department officials will be deployed to organise such camps. However, there will be an option for students who live far away from their respective campuses to get vaccinated from the nearest government-run vaccination centre,” said an official.

Ashis Kumar Panigrahi, pro-vice chancellor of Burdwan University, said all heads of departments would coordinate with the varsity to send a database to the higher education department this week.

“We have around 3,000 students and all of them have been given online forms to furnish their details,” he said.

Many college and varsity teachers said they were worried for students in science or engineering courses as they can’t attend practicals with institutions staying shut. “Once campuses open, it will be of great help to them. In-person classes are crucial for students of humanities too,” said a professor at Visva-Bharati.

Sources said the government is also focusing on full vaccination of teachers and staff of government-run schools too.

It is planning to reopen schools on alternate days.

“We need to ensure that all teachers and staff are vaccinated. As most teachers were on election duty during the recent Assembly polls, it is presumed that most have already received both doses. But we will make sure that the staff in schools have been fully vaccinated,” said a source in the health department.