The Center is preparing for the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine across the country, with four states set to start a trial for the administration of the vaccine next week, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
“Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab have been selected with geographical locations in mind. Each state will plan it in two districts and preferably in different (five) session type settings, for example, district hospital, CHC / PHC, urban site, private health center, rural extension, etc. ”Said a statement from the Ministry.
Link test
The Ministry added that this exercise will enable end-to-end mobilization and testing of the COVID-19 vaccination process (except vaccine) and will check the use of Co-WIN in the field setting, the links between planning mechanisms, implementation and reporting and identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation, including any improvements that may be required to the planned process.
He noted that this will also provide practical experience for program managers at various levels.
This two-day activity is planned for December 28 and 29 and will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to the receipt of vaccines and the assignment for the deployment of team members, mock session sites with the beneficiaries of the test, reports and evening meeting. .
This will also include tests for cold storage and transportation arrangements for the vaccine, crowd management at the session sites with adequate physical distance, the ministry said.
“An important focus of the trial will be the management of any potential adverse event post-immunization (AEFI),” the statement said.
Infection control
This will be in addition to verifying compliance and management of infection control practices at the session site, to prevent disease transmission.
“The drill will include simultaneous monitoring and review at the block and district level, and preparation of comments to share with the State and Union Ministry of Health,” the Ministry said.
The Ministry of Health prepared a detailed checklist that was shared with the four states to guide them through the trial.
Meanwhile, the National Group of Experts on COVID-19 Vaccine Administration (NEGVAC) has recommended three prioritized population groups, including healthcare workers (HCW) around one crore, frontline workers (FLW) around two crore and the prioritized age group (around 27 crore).
The Ministry added that since vaccines are sensitive to temperature and must be stored at a specific temperature, the current cold chain system consisting of 85,634 teams for the storage of the vaccine at approximately 28,947 points of the cold chain throughout the country will be used for cold chain management.
The current cold chain is capable of storing an additional quantity of COVID-19 vaccine required for Crore’s first three priority populations, namely healthcare workers and frontline workers.
To strengthen the capacity of human resources for the introduction and deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine, detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators, including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, chain handlers. of cold, supervisors, data administrators, ASHA Coordinators and everyone else involved in the implementation process at different levels.
The training includes all operational aspects of the training such as the organization of vaccination sessions, use of the IT platform Co-WIN for the management of the entire vaccination process, HR deployment, cold chain preparation, management of adverse events, communications and intersectoral coordination, biomedical waste. management protocols, infection prevention, etc.
The Ministry said 2,360 participants were trained during the Nationwide Training of Trainers, which comprises state immunization officials, cold chain officials, IEC officials, development partners, etc.
“As of today, state-level trainings had been completed in all states / UT with the participation of more than 7,000 district-level trainees, except Lakshadweep, who will be holding it soon (December 29). In cascade, 681 districts (49,604 fellows) have completed training of medical officers on operational guidelines. Vaccination team training was completed in 1,399 out of 17,831 planning blocks / units. It is happening in the other blocks, ”the statement said.
Additionally, to facilitate the resolution of COVID-19 vaccination inquiries and inquiries related to the Co-WIN portal, the capacity of the national 1075 and state 104 helpline has been strengthened to address inquiries beyond their routine support.
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