EC starts COVID-19 vaccination drive for officers, staff

New Delhi:  The Election Commission on Thursday started a COVID-19 vaccination drive for its officers and staff working at the Nirvachan Sadan here with former chief election commissioner M S Gill taking the first shot.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar will get vaccinated after all officials and staff of the commission are inoculated, an official statement said.
Arora had recently announced that all staff on poll duty for the upcoming assembly elections have been declared as ‘frontline workers’ and will be vaccinated before assuming their election duties.
The vaccination would encourage the poll duty officers to perform their duty without fear of COVID-19, Arora had said.
The commission had on February 26 announced polls in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.
Under the special vaccination drive, lakhs of polling officials in the five states and the union territory will be inoculated before proceeding on election duty, the statement said.