No Covid vaccine certificate, no salary, Punjab government tells its employees

Punjab government said its employees must produce vaccine certificates to get their salaries—a development that comes sees a new rise across the country. The state government has asked the employees to register their full or provisional vaccination certificate number with the state government’s human resources portal iHRMS. If they fail to do so, they will not be able to get their salaries, the government said in an order.

The move is being seen as the state government’s attempt to encourage more and more employees to get themselves vaccinated against Covid as concerns escalate over the new variant of coronavirus, Omicron. In the order issued on Tuesday, the state finance department asked all senior officers, heads of the departments, divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners, and others to ensure compliance. According to the order, an arrangement for entering the Covid vaccination certificate number on the Integrated Human Resource Management System (iHRMS) portal has been made.

Government employees should be informed that they should register the Covid vaccination certificate number of both doses with the IHRMS, said the order, adding if any employee has got one dose administered, he/she should register the number of the provisional certificate. It also asked to link the Covid vaccination certificate number with the salary module so that in case an employee does not furnish information regarding vaccination, his/her salary is not released

The order comes as the threat from the highly transmissible Omicron variant looms worldwide and experts fear a new third wave of Covid-19 cases in India. The Omicron threat hangs over at a time when the deadly delta variant, which devastated the country, including Punjab, last summer, hasn’t yet abated.Punjab has shown no significant rise in cases, but health experts have advised caution, particularly with upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays.