COVID-19 vaccine: The vaccine will first be administered to around one million healthcare workers.
New Delhi:
The government plans to vaccinate 30 million people in India against the coronavirus in the next six to eight months, starting with frontline workers. A COVID-19 vaccination trial is taking place across the country on Saturday to test the readiness of the authorities before launching the actual vaccination program.
The inoculation campaign will start anytime soon after the Indian drug regulator (DCGI) approves a vaccine. DCGI Director VG Somani recently hinted that India is likely to have a COVID-19 vaccine “in the New Year.” He spoke about the efforts made by the Department of Biotechnology and said: “… we will probably have a very happy New Year with something in hand. That is what I can hint at.”
This is everything you need to know about the Indian vaccination process:
Who will get the vaccine first?
1. Health workers: public and private
The vaccine will first be administered to around one million healthcare workers working in public and private hospitals, in accordance with the recommendation of the National Group of Experts on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC).
These health workers have been further divided into subcategories: Integrated Health and Child Development Services (ICDS) workers, nurses and supervisors, physicians, paramedics, support staff, and students.
Data for the same has been collected from the government and private health facilities and is being fed into CoWIN, a digital platform to implement and scale up the vaccination campaign.
2. Municipal and frontline workers
About two million frontline workers associated with the state and central police department, armed forces, domestic guard, disaster management and civil defense organization, prison staff, municipal workers, and revenue officials involved in containment, surveillance and associated activities of COVID-19 are next in line to receive the vaccine.
Workers associated with the state government and the ministries of defense, home, housing and urban affairs will also be vaccinated at this stage.
3. Population over 50 years
This group is divided into two subcategories: Over 60 and 50-60 years.
The latest electoral roll for the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections will be used to identify the population in this category for the vaccination campaign.
4. Areas with high COVID-19 infection
Union states and territories will have the generic flexibility to implement implementation in priority stages for identified priority groups (as decided by NEGVAC) in identified geographic areas where the prevalence of COVID-19 infection is high.
5. Remaining population
The remaining population will be inoculated after the people on the priority list are covered. Vaccination here will depend on the epidemiology of the disease and the availability of the vaccine. To avoid overcrowding at the vaccination session site, the vaccine will be administered to beneficiaries in a staggered manner.
How can you register for the vaccine?
The self-registration module will be available in the last stages of implementation.
This is how it will be done:
- Self-registration on the CoWIN website
- Upload government photo identity or perform AADHAAR authentication. Authentication can occur through biometric, OTP, or demographic data.
- Once registered, you will be assigned a date and time for the vaccination.
- There will be no registration on the spot and only pre-registered beneficiaries will be able to proceed with the vaccination.
- The respective district administration will be responsible for managing sessions in the CoWIN system. Recipients will be approved for the session and site assignment. CoWIN will have an integrated monitoring and reporting mechanism.
Where will you get vaccinated?
Vaccination sites have been assigned for different priority groups:
Fixed session site
Vaccination carried out in health facilities, both government and private, where a doctor or physician is available, is defined as a fixed place of session.
Outreach session site
Sites other than health facilities such as schools, community hallways, etc.
Special mobile equipment
This is for remote areas, with difficult access, areas of migratory populations and areas of international borders. District administrations should plan for these teams as part of the operational plan.
What will the vaccination process entail?
There will be three rooms and areas demarcated for the vaccination process: Waiting room – where you will wait before administering the vaccine; vaccination room – where the vaccine will be administered and observation room where the beneficiary will be observed for 30 minutes after receiving the vaccine.
Who is going to give me the vaccine?
A five-member vaccination team will handle the process:
- Vaccination Officer 1: To check the record in advance
- Vaccination officer 2: for authentication
- Vaccination Officer 3: In charge of administering the vaccine. Since it is an intramuscular vaccine, a trained professional will administer the vaccine.
- Vaccination Officer 4 and 5 – In charge of crowd management and 30 minute observation.
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