Over 13,000 railway health staff vaccinated against Covid-19: Goyal

Around 13,117 railway health staff have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal informed Parliament on Wednesday.

In a reply to a query in the Lok Sabha, the minister said the vaccination of Railway employees is being done in a phased manner.

In the first phase Railway health care staff are being vaccinated. Till now, 13,117 Railway health care staff have been vaccinated. 3,70,316 front line Railway employees have been identified for vaccination in the next phase, he said.

More than 30,000 railway employees have so far contracted COVID-19 and around 700 have died from it.

With freight train operations in full swing and passenger train services getting back to pre-lockdown levels, it was decided to insulate the critical staff of the national transporter -- engaged with public interface work as well as backroom operations such as maintenance -- from the virus.