45+ people will get Covid vaccine at polling booths: Delhi CM

New Delhi: In a bid to push inoculation of 45-plus age group, the Delhi government will send booth level officers (BLOs) door to door for allocating slots to eligible persons to get the jabs closer home at their designated polling centres under its ‘Jahan Vote, Wahan Vaccination’ campaign, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Monday.

The exercise will be replicated to vaccinate people aged 18-44 years as well whenever adequate doses of COVID-19 vaccine are available with the government, Kejriwal said in an online briefing.

There are 57 lakh people in Delhi in the 45 plus age group and of them, 27 lakh have been given the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine while 30 lakh are yet to get the jab, he said.

“We have noticed that people in the 45 plus age group are not coming to vaccination centres set up by the Delhi government and vaccines are not being utilised,” he said.

There are around 280 wards in Delhi. The BLOs will visit households in 72 wards from Tuesday to identify and send eligible persons for vaccination at the polling booths by allocating slots, he said.

The chief minister said polling booths are close to the homes of the people so they will not have to travel long distances to get the vaccine. Also, the government has arranged e-rickshaws to ferry people to the vaccination centres.

There are around 2,700 polling stations in Delhi spread across 70 Assembly constituencies.

The BLOs will give slots for vaccination to people in the 45-plus age group at the nearest polling centre. In a cycle of five days, all the eligible persons will be covered.

“After covering all the 280 wards in four weeks, the government will be able to say that all those eligible (45 years and above) have received the vaccine, Kejriwal said, hoping there will be no shortage of doses since the central government is providing the vaccines for 45+ age group.

He said a similar drive will be conducted again for their second dose vaccination after three months.

In view of 45-plus category people not turning up at vaccination centres, it was decided that without waiting for the people to come to the centres, they need to be contacted door to door, the chief minister said.

“The polling centres are usually at a walking distance to the houses of people, so they can easily walk into these centres.”

Training of the BLOs of 70 wards where the drive will start from Tuesday has begun. They will go to every house under their respective booths for next two days to ask about those above the age of 45 years who are yet to get vaccinated, he said.

The BLOs will carry voters list to survey people door to door and allocate vaccination slots. Those who are not registered as voters will also be covered in the exercise, he said.

“Those not vaccinated will be given vaccination slot by the BLOs to visit polling station at a specific date and time and get the jab.

Those who will refuse to get vaccinated will be counselled and convinced by the BLOs that vaccines are the only effective protection against the coronavirus, he said.

In two days, the booth level officers will complete the coverage of their booths and in the next two days, people will be vaccinated. Finally, those who did not turn up for vaccination will be again visited by the BLOs to convince them to take the jab, he said.

Every week this initiative will be carried out in 70 wards. So in four weeks, all 280 wards will be covered, the chief minister said.

The BLOs will be part of teams of 2-3 personnel, including civil defence volunteers.