Step up COVID vaccination drive: EC to five poll-bound states

In a recent letter to the chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab, the Election Commission has also reminded the five states that polling personnel come under the category of frontline workers and are eligible for the "precaution dose" of Covid vaccines.

New Delhi:Days after assessing the COVID-19 situation in all five poll-bound states, Election Commission (EC) has asked them to step up the inoculation drive against the infection to ensure that the personnel to be deployed on election duty are "double vaccinated".

In a recent letter to the chief secretaries of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur, and Punjab, the EC has also reminded the five states that polling personnel come under the category of frontline workers and are eligible for the "precaution dose" of Covid vaccines, sources said. The commission has said the polling personnel to be deployed in these states should be fully vaccinated and those eligible for the second dose of the vaccines should be administered the jabs on a priority basis.

While the tenure of the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly ends in May, the terms of the legislative assemblies of Goa, Manipur, and Punjab end on different dates in March. The EC is likely to announce the poll dates for the five states in the first half of this month.

"As a matter of abundant precaution, for those healthcare workers and frontline workers who have received two doses, another dose of COVID-19 vaccine would be provided from January 10, 2022. The prioritization and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of nine months i.e. 39 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose," the letter had said.

The EC, along with Bhushan, had assessed the Covid situation in the five states on December 27 and asked the government to expedite the vaccination programme in these states. Additionally, it had also noted that the percentage of those who have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was still less in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur, while it was nearing 100 percent in Uttarakhand and Goa.

The poll panel had also asked the Union health secretary to expedite the administration of the second dose of the vaccine to those eligible in these five states.