DW BUREAU / Ludhiana (Pb) The Ludhiana district administration in Punjab has allowed COVID-19 vaccination of bankers, judicial officers, employees of schools and food grain agencies, members of NGOs and journalists to ensure "safety of wider population in public interest." Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said the decision on expanding the ambit of the vaccination drive was taken to ensure the safety of the wider population from the pandemic. Vaccination has now been allowed for journalists, employees of all government/private banks, government/private schools, staff of food grain agencies, judicial officers/court staff/advocates, members of the Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) who have worked to check the spread of the pandemic by registering them as frontline workers, he said. The deputy commissioner directed the health department to further step up the vaccination drive to ensure all those eligible can be covered and can have smooth access to the vaccine. The move comes after Sharma presided over a meeting of the District Task Force on Monday to control a steep rise in infections by accelerating the vaccination drive, according to an official release. Punjab is witnessing a sharp increase in the number of fresh COVID-19 cases. The maximum number of positive cases has been reported from Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Mohali, Patiala and Nawanshahr, and to counter this, the state government imposed night curfew in several districts and shut down schools last week. As many as 1,843 fresh coronavirus infections pushed the case tally to 1,99,573 in the state, according to a medical bulletin issued on Monday. Twenty-seven more fatalities took the toll to 6,099. The number of active cases also increased from 11,550 on Sunday to 11,942 on Monday. The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers getting inoculated and vaccination of frontline workers started from February 2. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified comorbid conditions. (editor@dailyworld.in)