Polling booths to be used to give vaccine to people above 45 years

Polling booths in Delhi will get transformed into vaccination centers and booth-level officers (BLOs) will pay a visit to all houses for booking slots for the people above 45 years of age under the ‘Jahan Vote, Wahan Vaccination campaign’, Arvind Kejriwal announced on Monday.

57 lakh people in Delhi belong to the age bracket of more than 45 years. According to Kejriwal, among them 27 lakh people have got the first dose of the vaccine while the remaining 30 lakh didn’t get it yet.

He stated, “We have noticed that people in the 45 plus age group are not coming to the vaccination centers set up by the Delhi government, and vaccines are not being utilized.”

There are almost 280 wards in Delhi. From Tuesday itself, the BLOs shall start visiting houses ion 72 wards in order to identify and send the respective people for receiving their vaccination at the polling booths, he told.

The Chief Minister made it clear that the polling booths are not far away from the houses of the people. So, they don’t have to travel long distances for getting their vaccines. In addition to this, the government has also made provision for e-rickshaws for taking people to the vaccination centers.

It is the responsibility of the BLOs to provide slots for vaccination to the people above 45 years of age and register their names at the nearest polling booths. Within a span of 5 days, all the eligible beneficiaries shall get their vaccination.

Kejriwal stated, “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 vaccines.”

There shall be a similar sort of drive again for the second jab, after three months.

He concluded, “When we will get vaccines for the 18-44 age group in the required quantity, we will start this programme for them too.”