Centre directs civil defence, fire services, home guards to prepare Covid vaccination list

Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on Thursday held a meeting with police chiefs of all states and Union Territories, Civil Defence, home guards and fire services. People familiar with the development said that in the meeting, the Union Home Secretary discussed the preparation of database of personnel who would be in line to get Covid vaccination after prioritised groups.

It was decided in the meeting that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) along with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Health Ministry, states/UTs will decide the definition of frontline workers. This meeting was a follow up of a meeting chaired by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba last week, in which he had directed the states and Union Territories to prepare the database of prioritised groups who will receive the vaccine during the initial stages. 

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Centre asks to prepare list of personnel for Covid vaccination

As per the sources, the government is considering vaccinating police/security personnel as they are also engaged in various COVID-19 related duties. Senior officials in MHA said that Ajay Kumar Bhalla had directed police forces, civil defence, fire services, home guard to prepare the list of personnel who are deployed in COVID-19 frontline duties from their respective departments. The officials further said that the central paramilitary forces were also asked for such a list in a separate meeting which was held recently.

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"The Central  Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) or central paramilitary forces – including Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibet Police Force (ITBP), (Central Industrial Security Force), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) will play a key role in the vaccination," MHA officials added. 

The series of meetings of Covid vaccination drive has accelerated after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to 3 facilities in Ahemdabad, Hyderabad and Pune to review the development and manufacturing process of COVID-19 vaccine. Earlier in the week, three vaccine candidates, including Pfizer, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech applied for emergency use authorization.  

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India's COVID-19 tally

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, India so far has recorded over 97,67,371 positive cases, out of which 92,53,306 have recovered, while 1,41,772 have died. As per the latest updates from MoHFW, in the past 24 hours, 31,521 new cases, 37,725 fresh recoveries and 412 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active Coronavirus cases in India is 3,72,293. 

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