Railway Board for total vaccination of staff by July-end

There were 250 mortalities among railway staff across the country

The Railway Board has instructed general managers of all the zones across the country to take necessary steps to vaccinate the entire railway workforce, including coolies, contract personnel and other stakeholders by July-end. It has called for more vaccination camps to be set up to increase the pace of vaccination with those needing the second dose to be prioritised. Suitable rewards are to be given to zones and divisions having high vaccinate rates, low wastage and good practices. However, that is easier said than done since the railways is totally dependent on the State governments for the supply of COVID vaccines and the latter too have been trying to vaccinate prioritised persons of varied age groups, though the supplies are likely to improve in the coming months. For instance, the South Central Railway (SCR) with about 2.5 lakh staff is dependent on the governments of Telangana (Hyderabad, Secunderabad divisions), Andhra Pradesh (Vijayawada, Guntur, Guntakal) and Maharashtra (Nanded) for vaccine dosages to be supplied, and personnel to be vaccinated.