Delhi: DJB, electricity dept employees on front-line workers’ list for vaccination

Delhi has already collected information on health care workers through the hospitals and clinics they work in. The category of health care workers includes doctors, AYUSH practitioners, dentists, nurses, paramedical staff, non-medical staff in health care facilities, as well as security personnel in such facilities.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday said the state government would consider employees of the electricity department and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) as front-line workers and they would be second in line, after health care workers, to receive the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine when it becomes available.

Residents of Tughlakabad fill their containers with drinking water from a water tanker provided by the state-run Delhi Jal Board in New Delhi near Tughlakabad in New Delhi. (Raj K Raj /HT File Photo)

As per the recommendations of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), an estimated 10 million health care workers, 20 million front-line workers, including the police and army personnel, and 270 million people, either over the age of 50 years or with comorbidities, will be the three priority groups to receive the vaccine.

“Yesterday (Tuesday), the Delhi government has ordered that the employees of the DJB and the electricity department will be on the list of front-line workers and will be administered the vaccine on priority when it becomes available. They were working 24 hours a day even when there was a lockdown. Police, civil defence volunteers and safai karmacharis are already on the priority list,” said Jain in an interaction with the press on Wednesday.

Delhi has already collected information on health care workers through the hospitals and clinics they work in. The category of health care workers includes doctors, AYUSH practitioners, dentists, nurses, paramedical staff, non-medical staff in health care facilities, as well as security personnel in such facilities.

The districts already have in place data on the aged and those with comorbidities in containment areas, which was collected during the door-to-door survey. This will be updated for the vaccination drive.

The government has also started training health care workers on vaccine administration. The cold storage facilities and fixed points such as dispensaries and mohalla clinics where the vaccine will be administered are already in place.