People must not be reluctant to get vaccinated: Health officials

To assuage public apprehensions regarding any possible side effects from the Covid-19 vaccines, senior health department and district administration officials on Wednesday stated that they are ready to get vaccinated first

To assuage public apprehensions regarding any possible side effects from the Covid-19 vaccines, senior health department and district administration officials on Wednesday stated that they are ready to get vaccinated first. Asserting that Covid-19 vaccination will be a voluntary exercise, they clarified that the general public will get the vaccine jab once healthcare and frontline workers, people above 50 years and those below 50 years with comorbidities are covered.

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In a press conference at the Mini Secretariat on Wednesday, Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said, “Over 40,000 healthcare workers will first get the vaccine jab. I am ready to get vaccinated first to deal with apprehensions about the vaccine. Every vaccine has minor side effects like redness at the injection site or fever. People should not fear or be reluctant to get vaccinated. Therefore, I would appeal to prominent doctors of the city and deputy commissioner Yash Garg to get vaccinated along with me.”

Garg, who was present at the conference, agreed to the appeal. He said, “Herd immunity in the population can be developed either through letting the virus transmit from one person to the other or by vaccination. Like other inoculations given at birth, it is likely that Covid-19 vaccine, after a certain time period, might become a part of the immunisation programme. Citizens should not be scared of the vaccine .”

Garg said that people should take preventive measure until at least 70% of the population is vaccinated against coronavirus.

In the state, almost 0.25 million healthcare workers have to be vaccinated, followed by 0.45 million frontline workers. The inoculation of healthcare workers is set to start from January 16, while the data of frontline workers has to be finalised before January 25. For others, union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan earlier this week said that the entire population can be vaccinated after prioritising risk groups, without giving any specific dateline.

When asked about the vaccination of the general population, Yadav said, “It is difficult to comment as there has been no direction from the state or central government.”

Going by the Covid-19 vaccine guideline issued by the union ministry of health and family welfare, there will be a self-registration tab on the Co-WIN platform for the general population. The portal is currently accessed by health department employees to register healthcare and frontline workers.