Vaccinated don’t have to pay price for vax hesitancy of others: Captain
Punjab Government employees failing to take even the first dose of Covid vaccine for any reason other than medical will be compulsorily sent on leave after September 15.
The strong measure was announced on Friday by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to protect the people of the State from the disease, and to ensure that those who are vaccinated do not have to pay the price for continued vaccine hesitancy of those who are not.
At a high-level virtual Covid review meeting, the Chief Minister said that vaccine effectiveness is evident from the data being analysed. “Special efforts are being taken to reach out to Government employees, and those who continue to avoid getting vaccinated will now be asked to go on leave till they get the first dose,” said the Chief Minister.
Capt Amarinder also allowed teaching and non-teaching school staff, who had taken at least one dose of vaccine more than four weeks ago, to resume duties, subject to submission of weekly RT-PCR negative test reports.
However, all those with comorbidities shall only be allowed once they are fully vaccinated, he added.
School Education Secretary Krishan Kumar earlier pointed out that currently only fully vaccinated staff members are allowed to come to schools.
Health Minister Balbir Sidhu suggested the gap for the second dose be reduced for the school staff to 28 days, but Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan informed the meeting that the Centre had rejected the State’s request to allow them to be treated as essential services.
The Chief Minister noted with satisfaction that with aggressive testing, the situation in schools has remained under control.
After as many as 3,21,969 school students along with 33,854 teaching and non-teaching staff across a total of 5,799 schools were tested in the month of August, a total of 158 cases have tested positive so far, which accounts for a positivity rate of only 0.05 per cent, he added.