In a major development, the Centre has issued guidelines to all states and union territories for the COVID-19 inoculation drive in anticipation of a coronavirus vaccine against the disease in India.
The government had already announced that the COVID-19 vaccine will be offered first to healthcare workers, frontline workers and to persons above 50 years of age.
This will be followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities based on the evolving COVID-19 pandemic situation, and finally to the remaining population based on the disease epidemiology and vaccine availability.
Vaccinating 100-200 people in each session per day, monitoring them for 30 minutes after administering the shots for any adverse event and allowing only one beneficiary at a time are among the guidelines.
According to the guidelines issued to states recently, the COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) system–a digitalised platform–will be used to track enlisted beneficiaries for the vaccination and anti-coronavirus vaccines on a real-time basis.
At the vaccination site, only pre-registered beneficiaries will be vaccinated in accordance with the prioritisation, and there will be no provision for on-the-spot registrations. The states have been asked, as far as possible, to allocate the vaccine from one manufacturer to a district to avoid mixing of different COVID-19 vaccines in the field.
Under phase one of the vaccination, it is planned to vaccinate nearly 30 crore population. Twelve photo-identity documents, including Voter ID, Aadhar card, driving license, passport and pension document, will be required for self-registration on the Co-WIN website, it added.
As per the ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Operational Guidelines’, all measures should be taken to avoid exposing the vaccine carrier, vaccine vials or ice packs to direct sunlight, the document stated.
Vaccines and diluents should be kept inside the vaccine carrier with the lid closed until a beneficiary comes to the centre for vaccination. “There may not be vaccine vial monitors (VVM) and Date of Expiry on the label of COVID-19 vaccine, this should not discourage vaccinators from using the vaccine. At the end of the session, the vaccine carrier with all ice packs and unopened vaccine vials should be sent back to the distributing cold chain point,” the guidelines said.
States have been asked to implement an integrated 360-degree comprehensive advocacy communication and social mobilisation strategy to address the challenges surrounding vaccine rollout progress and benefits.
The Centre has stated that the country stands on the cusp of COVID-19 vaccine administration, even as certain challenges need to be countered well in time.
“These may include the challenge of ensuring over 1.3 billion people in India receive factual and timely information and updates on vaccine rollout progress and benefits, public’s anxiety and queries regarding government’s decision for prioritisation of vaccine administration, apprehension about the vaccines introduced after a short trial raising safety concerns, and fear of adverse events, misconception about vaccine efficacy, rumours and negative narrative in media/social media space and laxity observed in public adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour,” the document stated.
The vaccination team will consist of five members, it said. Each session should be planned for 100 beneficiaries per day. If the session site has adequate logistics and space available for waiting room and observation room along with arrangement for crowd management, one more vaccinator officer can be added to create a session for 200 beneficiaries, the guidelines stated.
The COVID-19 vaccine will be offered first to healthcare workers, frontline workers and to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities based on the evolving pandemic situation, and finally to the remaining population based on the disease epidemiology and vaccine availability.
The priority group of above 50 years may be further subdivided into those above 60 years of age and those between 50 to 60 years of age for purposes of the phasing of rollout based on the pandemic situation and vaccine availability. “The latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and legislative assembly election will be used to identify the population aged 50 years or more,” the guidelines stated.
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