COVID-19 vaccination at workplace can cover employees' family members, dependents, says Centre

New Delhi: The Union health ministry Saturday announced that family members and dependents of workers can also be covered under the COVID-19 vaccination drive at industrial and workplace inoculation centres. In a letter to all chief secretaries, the health ministry said that for industrial and private workplace CVCs (COVID-19 vaccination centres), the vaccine doses will have to be procured by the private hospitals with which the respective employer ties up. The family members and dependants of the workers, as defined by the respective employers, can also be covered with COVID-19 vaccination at the Industrial CVCs and the Workplace CVCs, the ministry said in the letter. It said that for government workplace CVCs, beneficiaries aged 45 years or more may be covered through the free vaccine doses supplied by the Centre to the states and Union Territories. However, the beneficiaries in the age group of 18 to 44 years may be covered through the vaccine doses directly procured by the respective State/UT governments from the vaccine manufacturers, the ministry said.