'Accelerate vaccination’, ECI tells five poll-bound states amid COVID spike

According to reports, the apex poll body has written to the chief secretaries of 5 poll-bound states asking them to 'accelerate' COVID vaccination. The poll body also expressed its concerns over the low percentage of the first dose of inoculation in Manipur, the sources said.

NEW DELHI: Amid grave concerns over the return of COVID-19 in the country, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has written a letter to the five poll-bound states to accelerate the ongoing vaccination drive to tackle the pandemic.

According to reports, the apex poll body has written to the chief secretaries of 5 poll-bound states asking them to 'accelerate' the COVID vaccination drive. The poll body also expressed concerns over the low percentage of the first dose of inoculation in Manipur, the sources said.

ECI writes to chief secretaries of 5 poll-bound states to 'accelerate' COVID vaccination; expresses concerns over low percentage of first dose inoculation in Manipur: Sources pic.twitter.com/fZECtKOeiF — ANI (@ANI) January 3, 2022

In view of the rising COVID-19 cases and the upcoming Assembly elections, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra had on Thursday said that representatives of all political parties, who met him during his visit to Lucknow, have demanded that the Assembly elections should be conducted on time following all Covid-19 protocols.

The Chief Election Commissioner’s statement came as a clear indication that there will be no postponement of the elections in the five poll-bound states. The Election Commission of India had earlier on Monday met Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and discussed the rising number of COVID-19 cases along with vaccination status in the five poll-bound states.

As per sources, the Election Commission and Health Ministry will also hold another meeting in the month of January to review the COVID situation.

Assembly elections are slated to be held in five states including Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Punjab next year. Earlier, amid the Omicron scare, the Allahabad High Court had requested the Election Commission of India to immediately postpone the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh for 1-2 months.

The court also urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ECI to immediately ban rallies and public meetings of political parties in the state. 

Amid all this, a total of 1,700 cases of Omicron variant of coronavirus has been detected across 23 states and Union Territories so far, out of which 639 have recovered or migrated, according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated on Monday.

Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 510 cases, followed by Delhi (351), Kerala (156), Gujarat (136), Tamil Nadu (121) and Rajasthan (120). India's Covid tally rose to 3,49,22,882 with 33,750 fresh cases, while the active cases increased to 1,45,582, according to the data updated at 8 am. 

The death toll climbed to 4,81,893 with 123 more fatalities, the data showed. The active cases have increased to 1,45,582 comprising 0.42 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.20 per cent, the health ministry said.