The Union Ministry of Health has sent its operational guidelines to the states and territories of the Union for the distribution of the vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) when available. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has said that India will seek to vaccinate 250-300 million people against Covid-19 in the first phase with priority for July next year.
India’s Covid-19 count has risen to 98,57,029, 9,357,464 patients have been cured or discharged from hospitals, and its death toll has risen to 143,019, according to figures from the Health Ministry. There are nine Covid-19 vaccine candidates in different phases of development in India and of these three are in the preclinical phase, while six are in clinical trials.
Here’s what the Center’s Covid-19 Vaccine Operational Guidelines say:
1. The Covid-19 vaccine will be offered first to healthcare workers, frontline workers, and people over 50 years of age. It will be followed by those under 50 years of age with associated comorbidities based on the evolution of the pandemic situation. Finally, the remaining population will be vaccinated based on the epidemiology of the disease and the availability of vaccines.
2. The priority group over 50 years old can be subdivided again into those over 60 years old and those between 50 and 60 years old for the purpose of staging the launch of the vaccine depending on the pandemic situation and the availability of the vaccine.
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3. The last electoral roll will be used for the election of the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly to identify the population of 50 years or more.
4. While most healthcare and frontline workers would be vaccinated at fixed session sites, vaccinating other high-risk populations may require outreach session sites and mobile sites or teams. Union states and territories can identify specific days for vaccination, government guidelines say.
5. Only pre-registered beneficiaries will be vaccinated after prioritization, with 100 registered beneficiaries vaccinated per session. There will be no on-site vaccination of beneficiaries at the vaccination site.
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6. The Covid-19 vaccine will be introduced once all training is completed in the district, block and planning units.
7. The vaccination team will be composed of five members. There will be a vaccination officer, who could be a doctor (MBBS / BDS), nurse, pharmacist, auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), health visitor (LHV). Any person legally authorized to administer an injection will be considered a potential vaccinator.
8. There will be a vaccination officer 1 with at least one person from the police, home guard, civil defense, National Cadet Corps, National Service Scheme or Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, who will verify the registration status of the beneficiary at the point of entry and will guarantee guarded entry to the vaccination session.
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9. Vaccination Officer 2 will be the verifier who will authenticate or verify identification documents, while Vaccination Officer 3 and 4 will be the two support staff members responsible for crowd management, information, education and communication. communication, and will support the vaccinator.
10. A digitized platform, the Covid-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) system will be used to track beneficiaries enrolled for vaccination and Covid-19 vaccines in real time.
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11. The existing post-immunization adverse event surveillance (AEFI) system will be used to monitor adverse events and inform the understanding of the safety profile of vaccines.
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