After Odisha, Chemists All Over India Say, ‘Vaccinate Us On Priority Or We’ll Join Lockdown’

New Delhi: Chemists in the country are annoyed. The government has not accepted their request to be treated as frontline workers for priority in vaccination. So now, they have threatened to join the lockdown. The medical devices makers’ industry body, too, has written to NITI Aayog, seeking vaccination on priority.

“Vaccinate chemists with priority, else all 9.4 lakh chemists are ready to join corona lockdown.” Jagannath Shinde, president of All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), an organisation representing around 940,000 chemists was quoted as saying by Business Standard adding that despite dangers every chemist has been working to maintain the availability of essential medicines.

The AIOCD said its members may join the lockdown, as they were “sidelined while considering vaccination priority.” Rajiv Singhal, AIOCD general secretary, told Business Standard that about 5 million people would have to be vaccinated. “Around 675 of our members have died due to Covid-19,” Singhal added.

The Association of Indian Medical Devices Industry (AiMED) too wrote a letter to VK Paul, member health of NITI Aayog, on Wednesday requesting priority allocation of vaccines to employees of medical devices companies. It said that its earlier requests did not receive any response, the report added.

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