After five senior Air India pilots lost their lives to COVID-19 last month, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) has urged the airline to vaccinate not only the members of the flying crew but also their family members.
In a letter on Tuesday, the ICPA said that their immediate families were at risk of contracting the virus and requested that the provision of vaccinating employees be extended to them.
"We draw your attention to government policy allowing private and state entities to vaccinate not just their employees but even dependent family members... Pilots are being quarantined, testing positive, and succumbing to COVID at an alarming frequency," the letter said.
"We fear infecting our family members on returning home after operating VBM flights. With this backdrop, we need support from the company to keep performing our duties and keep our families safe," it added.
The five senior Air India pilots who have succumbed to the coronavirus are Captain Harsh Tiwari, Capt Gurpratap Singh, Capt Sandeep Rana, Capt Amitesh Prasad and Capt Prasad M Karmakar.
Air India had in April decided to set up a mass vaccination camp for its employees aged 45 years or above on priority. Camps were set up to vaccinate over 6,000 of its employees aged above 45 years.
One of the Airline's vaccination camps, scheduled to be held at GSD Complex, Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi in May was cancelled due to the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine shortage.
"The proposed COVID vaccination Camp at GSD Complex, IGIA (Delhi) on May 11 and 13 stands cancelled because government authorities have expressed inability to hold these camps due to non-availability of vaccines," Air India had said in a letter.
( With inputs from ANI )
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