Two industry bodies representing chemists and medical device makers have asked the Centre to vaccinate their staff members against Covid-19 on priority, saying they worked through the epidemic despite facing an enhanced risk of infection.

The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists and the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry said on Thursday that their appeals to the Centre to include their staff members into priority populations such as frontline workers have remained unheeded.

The AIOCD has demanded priority vaccination for an estimated 940,000 employees and workers in thousands of retail chemist and distribution outlets across the country, while AIMED estimates about 20,000 surgical and medical device dealers and staff.

“Despite all dangers, every chemist is continuing to provide services,” J.S. Shinde, AIOCD president, and Rajiv Singhal, general secretary, said in a statement. “Dispensing and distribution of medicines is nothing less important than (the work done) by doctors, nurses, hospital staff.”

“In spite of repeated appeals, chemists were sidelined for no reason,” they said, cautioning that if all 940,000 are not prioritised for vaccinations, “chemists would join the lockdown”.

AIMED’s coordinator Rajiv Nath said the Union chemicals and fertilisers ministry had in February written to the health ministry seeking action on association’s request that the medical device industry employees be included in the vaccination priority list.

“Our employees play a critical role in the supply chain for medical devices — they need to be protected on priority,” Nath said. “Otherwise, if they fall ill, there could be supply chain disruptions, leading to localised shortages of items such as oxygen masks, syringes and intravenous sets.”

Nath said anecdotal accounts of Covid-19 deaths among members of the device supply chain network already point to possible disruptions in supplies.

“In Delhi’s Bhagirath Place (a wholesale market for medical devices, among other items), every week, the Surgical Manufacturers Traders Association is announcing obituaries leading the market to be shut down, leading to supply disruptions,” he said.

India’s vaccination campaign, launched in January this year, had initially prioritised healthcare and frontline workers such as police and defence personnel, municipal workers, and staff of similar public agencies for vaccinations before opening it up for all people 18 years or older.

But amid vaccine shortages, AIOCD and AIMED executives say their employees should be prioritised. “It may be prudent to reset the vaccination plan for prioritised access rather than the free access and the associated current chaos,” Nath said.

India’s vaccine shortages are rooted in what health experts and industry executives have described as poor planning that did not take into account the number of vaccine doses India would require to inoculate its large population.