Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh said on Friday that Punjab government employees failing to take even the first dose of Covid vaccine for any reason other than medical will be compulsorily sent on leave after September 15.

These strong steps was announced on Friday by the Chief Minister so as to protect the people of the state from the disease, and to ensure that those who are vaccinated do not have to pay the price for continued vaccine hesitancy of those who are not. Capt Amarinder also allowed teaching and non-teaching school staff who had taken at least one dose of vaccine more than four weeks ago to resume duties, subject to submission of weekly RTPCR negative test reports. However, all those with co-morbidities shall only be allowed once they are fully vaccinated, he added.

At the high-level virtual Covid review meeting held on Friday, the Chief Minister said vaccine effectiveness is evident from the data being analysed. Special endeavors were taken to reach out to Government employees, and those who continue to avoid getting vaccinated will now be asked to go on leave till they get the first dose.

The Chief Minister said with pleasure that with aggressive testing, the situation in schools had remained under control. As many as 3,21,969 school students along with 33,854 teaching and non-teaching staff samples have been taken in August, across a total of 5799 schools, and a total of 158 cases have tested positive so far, which accounts for a positivity rate of only 0.05 percent, he added.

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