SHILLONG, Jan 13: To allay the fear of people over COVID-19 vaccines, AL Hek on Wednesday said he will volunteer to be the first among the Health Ministers in the country to take the first shots if allowed.
Stating that the Centre has directed vaccination of health workers in the first phase, he said, “If the Central government allows, I will be the first Health Minister to go and get vaccinated.”
Altogether 35,000 doses of Covishield vaccines have arrived in the state. The vaccination drive, beginning January 16, will cover 16,000 health workers. In the first phase, health workers in East Khasi Hills and West Garo Hills will be vaccinated. Each of them will be administered two doses separately.
Hek said if the vaccine was not safe, medical experts would not have encouraged people to come forward for vaccination.
“People should see the hard work put in by medical experts and scientists. They worked hard all these months not to kill people but to protect people from the virus,” Hek said.
Earlier, he had said that the mass vaccination drive will be conducted once the initial phase is completed.
“Let the first phase be completed successfully and we will have to see how long it takes,” he had said.
