As the dry run of the COVID-19 vaccine is being conducted across all states and Union Territories across the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) has come out with guidelines on who makes it to the list of frontline workers. The dry run of the vaccination programme comes a day after a panel of government-appointed experts gave a go ahead for approval to Drugs Control Authority of India for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine is manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
Across the globe healthcare professionals treating COVID-19 patients and frontline workers are the first in line to get the vaccine shot as they are more susceptible to contracting the virus due to the nature of their work and coming in contact with multiple people.
Along with healthcare professionals and frontline workers, the elderly too, especially with comorbidity diseases are being given preference over the rest of the population. According to sources, the MHA has categorized frontline workers into a list of six categories. These include:
- The Police, personnel in civil defense and home guards personnel
- Paramilitary personnel on
- Municipal workers dealing with the municipal waste treatment related activities
- Fire safety personnel working with state fire departments.
- Prison staffers.
- Disaster management professional working with National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) at the central level and State Disaster Management Authority(SDMA) at the state level
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There are also concerns over others who are in fields that come under the essential services categories and whether they should be included in the list. The Central government for now plans to roll out the coronavirus vaccine for those identified in the frontline workers list as more vaccines are produced to meet the vaccine demands for citizens in the country.