BENGALURU: India, facing the daunting task of identifying high-risk people with comorbidities (not all states have data on such a population) whom it will need to inoculate after healthcare and frontline workers receive vaccines , you may consider allowing self-reported comorbidities to receive the arm injection.
Part of India’s preparations to deliver vaccines is to electronically label them – vaccines will be electronically tagged and tracked from the place of origin (ports / pharmaceutical companies) to the person receiving the dose. This will be enabled by the CO-WIN application, which is an enhanced version of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) initiative used for other immunization programs since 2015.
While eVIN tracked the vaccines to the cold chain, CO-WIN will trace them to the last mile: each person who receives a vaccine will receive an SMS with details of the date, place and time of vaccination and even the name of the vaccinator. After vaccination, the application will also generate certificates.
The data of the beneficiaries of the first two rounds of inoculation will be entered in CO-WIN by the state authorities, while the data of those of the third round, which will prioritize the comorbid people, can see the self- check in.
“As part of the update, an option has been included in CO-WIN that allows people to self-register and declare their comorbidities. Local officials will authenticate such requests before considering the person for vaccination. However, this option remains disabled at this time as governments will enter data from health workers, ”Arundathi Chandrashekar, one of the mission directors of the National Health Mission (NHM), who will lead the campaign, told TOI. vaccination.
The government has still maintained the option of collecting data from people with comorbidities and uploading it to CO-WIN as bulk entries, but this would require bulk data from all states, which may not be feasible within specific time frames.
“In the event that such data is not available and / or the planned surveys are not complete, it is likely that the government will allow self-registration. But things are still very fluid and a committee at the central level is deliberating on various options, ”Arundathi said, adding that the Center will decide the modalities.
Up to 20% can be comorbid
While a final decision on how to identify people with comorbidities has yet to be made, experts who are part of the ICMR and other government of India committees with TOI discussed various options, including self-declaration by individuals, Using the national NCDs database, the results of door-to-door surveys conducted in states such as Karnataka and the Mumbai region can be considered by the government.
“According to estimates, 15 to 20% of the population may have comorbidities. The NCD data is not complete and they only have passive enrollments that started in October 2019 and only a third of all data has been digitized so far. We will start an active survey soon and the target to cover the entire population is 2022. Other than this, we will likely include additional fields in the family surveys that will be conducted by the health department to include options for entering products. ”Arundhati added.
Aside from ENT data, some states like Karnataka are considering including additional fields for comorbidities as part of the National Survey of Families. “It will all depend on the guidelines of the Government of India,” Arundathi said.
Part of India’s preparations to deliver vaccines is to electronically label them – vaccines will be electronically tagged and tracked from the place of origin (ports / pharmaceutical companies) to the person receiving the dose. This will be enabled by the CO-WIN application, which is an enhanced version of the Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) initiative used for other immunization programs since 2015.
While eVIN tracked the vaccines to the cold chain, CO-WIN will trace them to the last mile: each person who receives a vaccine will receive an SMS with details of the date, place and time of vaccination and even the name of the vaccinator. After vaccination, the application will also generate certificates.
The data of the beneficiaries of the first two rounds of inoculation will be entered in CO-WIN by the state authorities, while the data of those of the third round, which will prioritize the comorbid people, can see the self- check in.
“As part of the update, an option has been included in CO-WIN that allows people to self-register and declare their comorbidities. Local officials will authenticate such requests before considering the person for vaccination. However, this option remains disabled at this time as governments will enter data from health workers, ”Arundathi Chandrashekar, one of the mission directors of the National Health Mission (NHM), who will lead the campaign, told TOI. vaccination.
The government has still maintained the option of collecting data from people with comorbidities and uploading it to CO-WIN as bulk entries, but this would require bulk data from all states, which may not be feasible within specific time frames.
“In the event that such data is not available and / or the planned surveys are not complete, it is likely that the government will allow self-registration. But things are still very fluid and a committee at the central level is deliberating on various options, ”Arundathi said, adding that the Center will decide the modalities.
Up to 20% can be comorbid
While a final decision on how to identify people with comorbidities has yet to be made, experts who are part of the ICMR and other government of India committees with TOI discussed various options, including self-declaration by individuals, Using the national NCDs database, the results of door-to-door surveys conducted in states such as Karnataka and the Mumbai region can be considered by the government.
“According to estimates, 15 to 20% of the population may have comorbidities. The NCD data is not complete and they only have passive enrollments that started in October 2019 and only a third of all data has been digitized so far. We will start an active survey soon and the target to cover the entire population is 2022. Other than this, we will likely include additional fields in the family surveys that will be conducted by the health department to include options for entering products. ”Arundhati added.
Aside from ENT data, some states like Karnataka are considering including additional fields for comorbidities as part of the National Survey of Families. “It will all depend on the guidelines of the Government of India,” Arundathi said.
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