For two days early next week, India will conduct a trial of the largest and most ambitious mass immunization program in its history.
The mock vaccination exercise will be held in two districts of each of the four states in the four corners of the nation – Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab and Assam – on December 28 and 29.
Given that several countries around the world have already started vaccination against the new coronavirus, India could be only days away from granting regulatory approval for the vaccine. The inoculation exercise is expected to begin shortly thereafter. With more than 10 million infections in total, India is the second worst affected country in the world, even though the number of daily cases has steadily declined over the past three months.
The trial will take place through four key steps, which will be closely monitored by the central government:
# Each district will receive the mock vaccination for 100 recipients from the nearest repository;
# Temperature will be monitored throughout the vaccine journey from warehouse to vaccination site;
# An SMS will be sent in advance to the beneficiaries with the name of the vaccinator and the time of vaccination;
# Each recipient will be made to sit for 30 minutes after the injection is administered; if an adverse event occurs, its administration will be tracked through the central server.
“A total of 2,360 participants have undergone training of trainers at the national level, which includes immunization and cold chain officers. Since people have already been trained, we want to know before the actual launch [of the vaccination programme] how effective this training has been. We have chosen a state for each of the north, south, east and west, and the states will decide the two districts. The test will be monitored by the Center, ”a senior government official who is part of the team that will monitor the test told The Indian Express.
The trial aims to test the country’s flagship vaccine delivery IT platform, Co-Win, at every stage, the sources said.
“After the states identify their two districts, the first step will be for them to schedule five vaccination sessions in five different locations. The places will be primary health centers, community health centers or a district hospital, ”said the senior official.
“Next, they (states) will create a session using the Co-Win digital platform and will include 100 people in that session. A five-member vaccination team will be set up ”.
In the third step, “100 people will receive an SMS generated by the computer platform that will transmit to them that vaccinator X will vaccinate them on [say] December 29 at [a certain] subcenter between time Y and Z, “said the official.
The next step during the trial will be related to maintaining and monitoring the cold chain using the IT platform, the sources said. Several Covid-19 vaccines will be temperature sensitive, and once the vaccination program is implemented, the country’s cold chain system of 85,634 teams at 28,947 cold chain points will be used to store the vaccine.
“A team will be sent to the vaccination center. The cold chain will be operational simultaneously. The district will inform you if you will get your vaccine at the nearest state depot or at the Government Medical Store Depot (GMSD). There are four GMSDs administered by the Union government and 27 state recipient points, ”the sources said.
According to sources, “the district will inform from where the vaccine should be received, where it is being taken and details of the temperature of the cold chain to the vaccination site.”
However, sources noted that while each state will have a consignee point in next week’s trial, when the actual vaccine management program is implemented, some states will receive their shipments from others.
“Not all states have a state destination point. For example, Nagaland, which does not have a state destination point to receive the vaccine, will get it from the nearest state, ”the sources said.
On the critical aspect of vaccine administration and adverse event reporting, the sources said: “The vaccinators will do the dummy test with 100 people. Each person will wait 30 minutes after getting vaccinated. They (vaccinators) will see where the bugs are, if any. They will also record adverse events, if any, after vaccination. Since the post-immunization adverse event (AEFI) is a critical aspect, the management of the adverse event will be monitored, ”said the sources.
State-level training has been completed in all states and territories in the Union, with the exception of Lakshadweep, which will conduct its training on December 29. “In cascade, 681 districts (49,604 trainees) have completed training of medical officers on operational guidelines. Vaccination team training has been completed in 1,399 of the 17,831 planning blocks / units. It is ongoing in the other blocks, ”the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
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