Bengaluru: Vaccination certificates finally issued to 27 people heading to foreign countries

Bengaluru: Vaccination certificates were finally generated after a long wait for the 27 of 158 foreign-bound students and professionals who are awaiting the same after both the doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. They were generated on Wednesday night.

The 13 others are likely to get their certificates on Thursday and the remaining ones are expected to get theirs in batches soon.

The 158 individuals who got inoculated with the second dose before the stipulated 84 days faced a problem as the state government had prioritised vaccinating foreign-bound students and professionals. However, multiple departments got their acts together and resolved the glitches.

The vaccination drive for these people was held at Bengaluru City University from June 1-11. Around 1,470 got their first jab and 158 the second one. But none of the 158 people received the vaccination certificate.

Lingaraja Gandhi, BCU vice-chancellor said, “It’s a commitment we took from the university and we ensured that certificate issuance has begun. Already, 27 of them have got it.” But, the place and date of inoculation differed from the actual ones.

The deputy chief minister CM Ashwath Narayan asked for a nodal officer in Bengaluru to be authorised to sort out the issues. After some hours, 40 candidates were asked by BBMP to visit the primary health centres in Vasanthnagar, Govindraj Nagar and Ulsoor on Thursday to complete some formalities for the certificates. Twenty-seven of them responded quickly and they received the certificates around 9 pm. Gandhi said, “Candidates have to fill up a form and they’ll be issued final vaccination certificates at the PHCs.”

Some beneficiaries went to the OHC on Tuesday but, the gates were closed and there was no information on the same. A social media group has been discussing the certificate issue. A 24-year-old woman said, “There’s no clarity when we’d get the certificates. Earlier, when we met authorities in the university, they said certificates would be issued, but now there’s no one to throw light on the matter.”

The issue was also stuck in jurisdictional knots. According to Civic officers, BCU falls under both East and West zones of BBMP. They also said, “That has been resolved and all data is being sent to BBMP head office.”

Rajendra Cholan, outgoing special commissioner  (health), BBMP said, “The BBMP is working on a plan to appoint a nodal officer to address the issue.” The officer will be in charge of facilitating the vaccination of foreign bound students, professionals and sportspersons going to the Tokyo Olympics.

Cholan said, “All 158 people who got their second dose will receive their final vaccination certificates as per government of India guidelines.”

Another officer said, “Had vaccination beneficiaries used their passport as their identity card during CoWin registration for their first dose, the issue would have been resolved easily. The passport ID is now being used as per the new SOP to exempt them from 84 days’ spacing between the two doses.”