Nearly 20,000 government employees in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore will not be paid their salaries next month if they refuse to take the Covid-19 precautionary vaccine dose, reported news agency PTI, quoting authorities.
“Frontline staff, health care workers etc will be paid next month’s wages only if they take the third shot of the vaccine, and treasury officials have been intimated about the decision,” said Indore collector Manish Singh.
“The order covers those who have not taken the third shot even after the stipulated period,” he added.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh’s Covid-19 tally reached 9,04,744 on Monday after the detection of 10,585 new cases, while the toll increased to 10,576 with six patients succumbing to the infection.
Indore and Bhopal, the two worst coronavirus-hit cities of Madhya Pradesh, registered 2,665 and 2,128 cases, respectively.
The positivity rate reduced to 13.0% from 13.4% the day before, said an official.
The recovery count stood at 8,24,275 after 7,822 people were discharged from hospitals during the day, leaving the state with 69,893 active cases.
A government release said 10,87,44,479 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far in the state, including 1,27,907 on Monday.
‘Stealth’ Omicron in state
As many as 21 Covid-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant’s sub-lineage known as BA.2 have been found in tests conducted over the past 18 days in the laboratory of a private medical institute in Indore.
Those infected with this sub-lineage include six children, an official from the private facility said on Monday.
“Since 6 January, a total of 21 cases of BA.2 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant have been found during tests conducted in our Molecular Virology Diagnostic and Research Lab, which is recognized by the Centre,” Vinod Bhandari, founder chairman of Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS), was quoted as saying by PTI.
“Lung involvement ranging from 1% to 50% was observed in six out of 21 patients of this Omicron sub-lineage. Three patients are still hospitalized, while 18 have been discharged. Of the 21, a total of 15 adults have taken both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Bhandari informed.
With inputs from agencies.
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