Chennai,  Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner (GCC) G. Prakash on Saturday said that vaccination has restrained Covid cases among the frontline workers across the city.

The Commissioner said in a statement that this is a strong case as to why people should take the Covid vaccine jabs.

Out of the 60,000 to 70,000 frontline workers in the city including the GCC employees, health care staff and police, only 619 were infected with the pandemic as 90 per cent of them were vaccinated.

Prakash said that post inoculation no corporation staff had died due to Covid.

However, he said at least 26 Greater Chennai Corporation staff had died of the virus during the first wave.

The GCC Commissioner further said that the reduced mortality rate and less infections are mainly owing to the vaccination being taken by the frontline workers including the GCC employees.

Of the 150 journalists who had taken RT-PCR tests as part of attending the counting on May 2, only one had tested positive.

This, according to Prakash is due to the vaccination they had taken. GCC has also been vaccinating journalists as frontline workers since March 2021.

Soundarajan, a health care worker attached to a government hospital, told IANS: "We did take vaccination and this has led to the reduced infections and fatality count among the front line workers, including the healthcare staff."