No vaccination of 18-plus in Himachal today

Shimla, June 29

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The state government has cancelled the vaccination session for category B beneficiaries (18 years plus) tomorrow. According to a government spokesperson, only the category A beneficiaries (45 plus, health care workers, frontline workers and priority groups) will be vaccinated tomorrow.

Rs 50 lakh released

Rs 50 lakh has been released to the dependants of Sushma, a midwife at the Public Health Centre at Naldehra who died of Covid. Dr Surekha Chopra, CMO, said. New India Assurance Limited had released the amount under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package.

The decision to temporarily discontinue the vaccination of category B beneficiaries have been taken to ensure better coverage of the category A beneficiaries, who have lagged behind over the past couple of weeks. The 18 years-plus beneficiaries have shown a lot of enthusiasm for vaccination and over 10 lakh of them have been vaccinated. “However, in the process, our coverage of above 45 years and prioritised groups have suffered. To bring back some sort of balance in the coverage, the government has decided to focus on the category A beneficiaries for a couple of days,” an official said. “For instance, if we have to reopen schools, we will need teaching and non-teaching staff to be vaccinated. So, we need to focus on prioritised groups and the elderly for a while,” he said.

Besides, all people, who have to travel abroad for education or are part of Indian contingent for the Tokyo Olympic Games, can link their Covid-19 vaccination certificates to their passports on the COWIN portal. — TNS