Khyber Pakhtunkhwa makes Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for medical students

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has made it compulsory for all medical students to get the coronavirus vaccine, a notification issued by the Higher Education, Archives and Libraries Department said.

"All medical and dental students, all teaching and administrative staff are to be vaccinated in their respective colleges within the three weeks."

The notification, approved by the health department, added that following this, all academic activities at medical colleges across the province will resume.

The vaccines will be provided free of cost to medical varsities and colleges across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the Pakistan Medical Commission.

The new directives have been sent to the Khyber Medical University, Peshawar, all private and public medical universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the KP Higher Education.

Educational institutions in multiple parts of the province were closed after coronavirus metrics rose. Experts have said that the third wave of the deadly virus is most prevalent in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Islamabad.

In the last 24 hours, 4,323 new cases were reported countrywide while 43 people succumbed to the virus. The total number of deaths in Pakistan has climbed to 14,821.