"Cannot vaccinate frontline workers because of gram panchayat polls"

Virtually saying it cannotvaccinate frontline workers because of the scheduled electionsto the gram panchayats, the Andhra Pradesh government onMonday night wrote to the Centre ''seeking guidance'' on thefurther road ahead to achieve the twin objectives of (Covid-19) vaccination and conduct of elections.

Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das wrote to Union HealthSecretary Rajesh Bhushan to this effect.

''The State Election Commission has announced elections tothe gram panchayats and the election process has started.

There are approximately 1.35 lakh polling stations andaround five lakh staff will be deployed for election duty,which includes police, panchayat raj, revenue and educationdepartments, who comprise the frontline workers,''he said.

The same frontline workers would be deployed to differentpolling stations in multiple locations.

The issue was more acute in the case of police personnel,who were only 73,188 in number, but have to be deployed to1.35 lakh polling stations, Das pointed out.

Each police personnel would have to be deployed to threepolling stations on an average on rotation, by moving themfrom one location to another, as some of them would also beother bandobast duties.

''Simultaneously, all the polling personnel are deployedaway from their place of work and their residence.

This will lead to huge logistical problems and thepolling personnel will not be able to be vaccinated as theywill be deployed elsewhere from the session site allocated tothem,'' the Chief Secretary said.

He also pointed out that those given the first dose atone location would not be available at the same location forthe second dose.

Further, the process of vaccination requires a period ofobservation.

AEFI protocol has to be followed where continuousmonitoring of the vaccine recipient is mandated to minimizeany untoward outcomes.

It is advisable that the recipients are not put tounnecessary stress and they have to be provided an environmentof low-stress and monitored closely,'' he noted.

Both the vaccination and elections ought to be undertakenas per the directions of the High Court and the Supreme Court.

''In this backdrop, we seek your guidance on the furtherroad ahead to achieve the twin objectives of vaccination andconduct of elections,'' Das wrote.