Vadodara: The Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has started a string of meetings to engage sanitation and other workers of the civic body to ensure that they take the Covid-19 vaccine.
This was necessitated after it came to light that there were several workers who had not been vaccinated yet.
The death of a sanitation worker in the early stages of the vaccination drive has made many sceptical about the jab. The workers have avoided getting vaccinated despite efforts to convince them through senior officials.
On Thursday, VMC officials called leaders of various worker and employee unions of the civic body and sought their help.
VMC has also asked health officials to start going to ward offices and assembly points of sanitation workers to meet them there. The officials will be looking to rely on one-on-one meetings to convince the workers.
VMC’s initial data had pegged the number of frontline workers at around 10,610. While the vaccination stands at 9,864, the number of vaccinated persons include several who had not registered themselves and were vaccinated on January 30 and January 31. Also, there were many who had not been registered. It is believed that the actual number of frontline workers whose vaccination is pending may be around 5,000.
“As per the new guidelines, the vaccination of frontline workers and healthcare workers will continue along with the vaccination of the beneficiaries of the third phase,” said VMC’s medical officer (health) Dr Devesh Patel.
VMC was earlier looking to register frontline workers for vaccination only till Sunday. The decision about whoever remained pending was to be taken later, but the new guidelines suggest that the vaccination of the persons covered in the first two stages should also continue.
Health officials are also sorting the data collected for the third phase by including persons as per the new guidelines. Earlier persons above50 years of age and those below this with co-morbidities were to be vaccinated,but the new guidelines suggest that persons above 60 and those between 45 and60 years of age having co-morbidities should be vaccinated.
VMC executive engineer Shailesh Naik who is responsible for sanitation said that while several workers were not vaccinated, attempts were underway to convince them. “We tell them how lakhs have taken the vaccine in the country without any major hiccup and how the vaccine can save their life,” he said.