Covid-19 vaccine to be administered to persons engaged in Assam Assembly polls

Feb. 23: Assembly election to the four states and a Union Territory will be held soon in the month of April-May. Though the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to declare the poll schedule, yet these states are carrying on poll preparation in full swing. The terms of the legislative assemblies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry is coming to an end between May and June 2021.

A letter by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the National Expert Group on Vaccination and Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) had recommended that all officials and employees who would be engaged in election related duties in the forthcoming Assembly polls would be treated as Front Line Workers and would be administered with Covid-19 vaccine. The ministry has asked the state governments to identify such people and upload the details on Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) portal. The state government should ensure that there is a gap of 28 days between two doses of vaccines. So the schedule should be prepared in a way that everybody deployed for election duty gets both the doses.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Health Secretary N S Nigam has already held a virtual meeting with the district administration to prepare a list of the employees to be engaged in election related duties and upload it so that the state can start the process of vaccination at the earliest. A similar exercise is also reported to begin in Assam also. Sources revealed that the Assam government is working upon it and would begin the process very soon. Apart from the polling staff all others who are/will be involved in the election procedure needs to be vaccinated.

However, it is not yet clear whether the process of vaccination for the polling personnel is mandatory or voluntary. Many persons associated with the election process expressed the view that it is optional and any person who is unwilling to take a vaccine will be allowed that option. But an official clarification in this regard is yet to be announced.

India has granted emergency use authorisation to two COVID-19 vaccines — Pune-based Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd’s Covaxin which are being used in the government’s vaccination drive. India started nationwide coronavirus vaccine drive on 16. The healthcare workers and frontline workers were the first group to receive the much-awaited COVID-19 vaccine. The distribution of second dose of coronavirus vaccine to beneficiaries began from 13 February.