The Centre has made it clear that the announcement of polling dates in West Bengal is now just a matter of time. The central government, on Monday, sent a letter to the state informing it that vaccination of all election workers in the state should start and be completed soon. Each of them has to complete this process of vaccination with the status of ‘First Corona warrior’. After receiving this instruction, the top officials of Swasthya Bhavan (state health ministry) held online meetings with senior health workers and district governors of different districts of the state.

According to state administration and health building sources, there are more than one lakh polling booths in Bengal. The number of election workers employed including reserve staff is about four and a half lakh. Employees from more than 40 government departments would be involved in the voting. In the two districts adjacent to Kolkata alone, North and South 24 Parganas, the number of election workers is estimated at 45,000 and 55,000 respectively.

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A senior health official said that the work of registering police, civil servants, firefighters, and other government line personnel involved in the corona vaccination work as ‘first-line corona fighters’ has already been completed. Five and a half lakh workers have been registered for vaccination. About one lakh out of them have also been vaccinated.

However, apart from the government and government contractors listed in this list, there are no names of many workers in many departments, who would be involved in the election process. At least the government can send those vaccinated on voting duty, said the state health official. So the primary responsibility is to get these names (unvaccinated workers) in the Cowin app and then arrange for them to be vaccinated.

Although the state has taken all measures for corona vaccination with the help of doctors, health workers, and first-line corona fighters, the vaccination rate in the state is still not very satisfactory due to issues with Cowin app, the reluctance of some to be vaccinated, and fear of side effects among others.

Meanwhile, the Centre has said that vaccination of seven lakh health workers, doctors, and five and a half lakh front line fighters in the state must be completed by February 20. In the current situation, the health workers think that it is almost impossible to complete this work by that time. In it, the names of the unvaccinated election workers have to be registered again.

After receiving instructions from the central government on Monday, Swasthya Bhavan informed the district officials to send the list of election-workers quickly. Dr. Asim Das Malakar, head of immunization in the state, said that election workers have been asked to make arrangements for immunization & the actions are being taken accordingly.