Who will get vaccine first? Paramilitary, civic workers, police among frontline workers
NEW DELHI: The Centre has finalised the definition of a frontline warrior including six services into the category — police, paramilitary personnel, civic workers dealing with municipal waste treatment-related activities, fire safety personnel, prison staffers and disaster management professionals working with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) .
These frontline workers would be the first recipients of the Covid vaccine in the country. The first category will also include personnel of civil defence and home guards. Prison staffers were originally not enlisted in the frontline warriors but the Ministry of Home Affairs stressed that prison staff across the country be treated as frontline workers, and get them vaccinated in earlier rounds. Demands of some states such as Bihar to enlist revenue and power utility staffers as frontline workers could not be fulfilled, government officials said.
The decision was taken by the Centre in consultation with the states. States and Union Territories were earlier told through a meeting to appoint state-level nodal officers for the vaccine roll-out plan. The Centre has already started simultaneous dry-run for the vaccine roll-out plan in four states.
Nearly 30 crore Indians will receive two-shot Covid vaccine in the first two rounds of immunisation. In the first phase of immunisation drive, one crore health workers and an estimated two crore other frontline workers will be given the vaccine. They will be followed, in the second round, by people aged above 50 years and those with comorbidities, whose population is estimated to be nearly 27 crore.