As the sequel of the low vaccination rate among college students in Tamil Nadu, the state has made vaccination mandatory for them. The move has come when the state government has been ramping up the vaccination rate and on Friday, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian has said that the vaccination is mandatory for students above 18 years of age to attend the classes physically.

While addressing the media after attending a high-level meeting of educationalists in Chennai on Friday, he said that the Secretary of the Higher Education will be writing letters to all the educational institutions directing them to make it mandatory for students above 18 years of age to get at least one dose of the vaccine administered to them. 

He further said that only 46% of engineering students above 18 years have taken the first dose of vaccine and only 12% of the students have taken both doses of vaccine. He added that college administrators should verify the student list and ensure that 100% double cases have been administered. He stated that functions and student get-togethers won't be allowed to be held without proper permission from the health department. 

He also said that students must bring food in disposable containers and be sent to canteens in batches. The order from the state government to make vaccination mandatory for college students has come in line with the directive from the Union government which asked all the state governments to focus on vaccination drives in light of the spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant. On Thursday, Health Minister Ma Subramanian has inspected the ACTech block located in the Anna University Campus in Chennai after nine students had tested positive for the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said, "The 763 students in the campus underwent RT-PCR tests, and nine of them have tested Covid-19 positive. They have been admitted to the Kings Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research. Their samples have been collected and are being sent for genomic sequencing." He further said that the Health Department had issued instructions to the university that professors, staff, wardens, and students should adopt social distancing while having food in the canteen.