Poll officials have to be fully jabbed: Health dept

Vadodara: The state health department has asked its officials to ensure that all electoral officials who were likely to be given poll duties are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
The officials have started the process of identifying persons who had not taken the preventive dose and vaccinating them.
The state assembly polls are around the corner and the election commission had held a review regarding poll preparedness last month. It was during this review that the commission had pointed out that the Covid-19 guidelines formulated by the health department of the Union government will have to be followed during the polling process.
In line with the instructions, the state health department has issued directives that all eligible officials who were likely to be given poll duties should be given free vaccines at the earliest.
Sources said that the move was also being seen as an opportunity to ensure that the frontline workers of the government were administered the precautionary dose of Covid-19 vaccine. This comes as no surprise as the vaccination of persons with the precautionary dose has been sluggish.
According to data available till Tuesday evening, the coverage of senior citizens has surpassed the target in Vadodara. The coverage of precautionary dose among persons in the 18 to 44 years’ age group, as well those between 45 and 60 years have been low with around 45 per cent and 35 per cent coverage, respectively.
Most government employees would fall in the two age groups with low coverage. Vadodara Municipal Corporation’s medical officer (health,) Dr Devesh Patel said that most of the frontline workers would have taken the precautionary dose. “If some are left, we will ensure that they take the vaccine at the earliest,” he said.