Onsite registration for COVID vaccines at Assam tea gardens for 18-44 group

GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Saturday decided to facilitate COVID-19 vaccination in tea garden areas through onsite registration and appointment for the people in the 18-44 age group who do not have access to smartphones.

A Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department stated that COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) would be created separately for onsite registration and appointment with sessions to be scheduled on separate or alternate days.

The sessions should be scheduled and planned carefully to avoid overcrowding and slots should be reserved for those who do not have access to smartphones for an appointment, it said.

There will be no onsite registration and appointment for the category in the urban areas with the exception being special category personnel recommended by the Social Welfare Department, it added.

The department also issued guidelines for facilitating COVID vaccination for those beneficiaries without identity cards as well as facilitating onsite registration in CoWin for vaccination of age group 18-44 years.

District Immunisation Officers (DIOs) can create special sessions for beneficiaries without identity cards like prisoners, old age home members, sadhus/saints, inmates in mental health institutions, beggars, those in rehabilitation centres, among others.

Meanwhile, the Congress criticised the Assam government for increasing the daily wage of tea workers by only Rs 38 to Rs 205, which is way below BJP's electoral promise of Rs 351.

Congress General Secretary in charge of Assam Jitendra Singh said in a statement that the increase in wages announced on Friday was even less than the Rs 50 increase from Rs 167 to Rs 217 as notified by the previous Sarbanand Sonowal government in February this year.

"This notification was also withdrawn and now only Rs 38 has been increased but the Congress had guaranteed an increase of Rs 365 to tea workers within six hours of forming a government, if voted to power," he said.

The state reported 5,613 new COVID-19 cases and 77 deaths on Saturday, as per an official bulletin.

The state has so far reported 4,03,623 cases and 3,245 deaths, as per the National Health Mission.

There are 54,948 active cases in the state at present.

Tinsukia reported the highest eleven deaths, replacing Kamrup Metro which has been on the top of the tally till date.

Cachar district reported seven deaths, while five people each died in Kamrup Metro, Nagaon and Barpeta.

Of the new cases, 580 were detected in Kamrup Metro, 516 in Cachar and 352 in Dibrugarh.

The new cases were detected out of 1,16,562 tests conducted during the day, taking the daily positivity rate to 4.82 per cent.

The number of recovered patients discharged during the day is 3,905 and the total number of recoveries is 3,44,083.

In all, 32,45,384 people received the first dose of the COVID vaccines in the state and of them, 8,26,894 got the second dose.

Chief Minister Hinanta Biswa Sarma said that the situation in the state was expected to improve within the next five to six days and the government will review the restrictions imposed on June 5.

He said that there may be a possibility of partial relaxations from June 7 but most of the restrictions will continue to remain in force till June 15.