On Tuesday, more than one hundred BMC officials, including all executive health officials, 14 medical health assistants and 24 health physicians, attended a training program at the G-north district office in Dadar, where each one of them was assigned a role in The vaccination campaign is likely to be implemented in the second week of January 2021.
According to a Credit Suisse report, while India will need 1.7 billion doses of Covid vaccines, its cold storage capacity may not keep up. The first to land in India is likely to be the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which should be stored between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. In India, the vaccine is being manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
Officials say the vaccine distribution will mimic the protocol followed during all immunization drives in the state. However, the scale and sophistication of the operation this time would be unlike any other mass vaccination campaign undertaken in the state’s history.
Maharashtra’s quota of vaccines received from the Union government will first be stored in the state government controlled medical warehouse in Central Mumbai. From here, the vaccines will be transported to Pune’s Arogya Bhavan for distribution to various parts of the state. A team of BMC officials will bring the vaccines for use into Mumbai by road. Ten vans have been prepared for this.
Once in Mumbai, the vaccines will be stored in a specially created facility in Kanjurmarg. Since this installation is still in process and the BMC does not want to take any chances, ten large capacity refrigerators have been placed in the F-sur district office in Parel to store the vaccines just in case.
India will need 1.7 billion doses of the Covid vaccine (Photo: Raju Shinde, TIL)
From the Kanjurmarg facility or from the F-sur district office, the vaccines will be shipped to eight BMC-managed hospitals where front-line workers will be inoculated. The eight hospitals are: KEM, Sion, Nair, Cooper, Bandra-Bhabha, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Municipal General Hospital, Kandivali, Rajawadi and VN Desai Hospital.
The municipal corporation has formed a ten-member Task Force to oversee all aspects of vaccine distribution and administration with Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani as its head.
According to Dr. Mangla Gomare, Executive Health Officer, who is a member of the Task Force led by Kakani, there will be three smaller task forces: one in each of the eight designated hospitals, another to oversee immunization work at the level room and a third focused on logistics. “The first part of the vaccination will be carried out in three phases that will last at least one year. The first phase will cover front-line health workers from the public and private sectors; In phase II, other front-line workers such as police, paramilitary personnel and a section of government officials will be covered. In the third phase, people over 50 will be vaccinated. In this category, those with comorbidities will have priority, ”he said.
Dr. Mangala Gomare on the preparation of the Covid-19 vaccine in Mumbai
Each of the eight designated hospitals has formed six-member teams led by a senior physician. Another four members of these teams will be made up of a head nurse and four members of the support staff, including a guard to control access to the area for the administration of the vaccine.
More than 100 BMC officials attended a training program in the G-north district in Dadar (Photo: Raju Shinde, TIL)
Infrastructure
The BMC has received 17 ice-lined refrigerators from the state government and these have been placed in the eight designated hospitals. Each refrigerator can store up to 48,000 vaccine vials. The corporation has also placed orders for 40 cubic meter and 49 cubic meter refrigerators, which, between them, may contain 60 lakh vials.
Apart from this, it has also been put out to tender for 300 refrigerators, each large enough to hold 12,000 vials.
The vaccination areas will have three enclosures: waiting area, vaccination area and observation area. Each recipient will be observed for half an hour after receiving an injection.
Dr. Sheetal Jagtap talks about the preparation of the Covid-19 vaccine in Mumbai
The eight hospitals will also have post-immunization adverse event management (AEFI) centers. These centers will be run by a team of doctors made up of a cardiologist, a doctor and a neurologist.
Deputy Executive Director of Health Dr. Sheela Jagtap said the goal is to get 1,500 to 2,000 vaccinations per day. Five teams at each designated hospital will work two shifts. “Listed 1.25 lakh frontline health workers will be covered in 20 working days,” he said.
Graphics: Vinay Arote / TIL
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