New Delhi (NVI): The government is gearing up for the roll out of COVID-19 vaccine in India and a dry run for vaccine administration will be conducted in four states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab next week, the Health Ministry said.
According to an official statement, the training of participants and those who shall administer the COVID-19 vaccine has been already taken up across various states.
“To strengthen the capacity of our human resource for COVID-19 vaccine introduction and roll-out, detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinators, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
It added that, “The training includes all operational aspects of training like organization of vaccination sessions, use of Co-WIN IT platform for management of the entire vaccination process, deployment of HR Cold chain preparedness, management of adverse events, communications and intersectoral coordination, biomedical waste management, infection prevention protocols etc.”
The data revealed that, a total of 2,360 participants were trained during national level training of trainers which comprised state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners etc.
So far, the state level trainings had been completed in all States and UTs with participation of more than 7,000 district level trainees, except Lakshadweep which will conduct it soon on December 29, the statement noted.
Meanwhile, the dry run vaccine administration has been planned in four states to start with Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab considering the geographical locations, the ministry stated.
“Each state will plan it in two districts and preferably in five different five session type settings like district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach etc,” it said.
This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment apart from providing a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels.
“This two-day activity is planned on 28 and 29 December and will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to vaccine receipt and allocation to deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test beneficiaries to reporting and evening meeting,” the statement further said.
Furthermore, as vaccines are temperature sensitive, the exercise will also include testing for cold storage and transportation arrangements for COVID-19 vaccine, management of crowd at the session sites with proper physical distancing.
In addition, the present cold chain system consisting of 85,634 equipments for storage of vaccine at about 28,947 cold chain points across the country will be used for the cold chain administration.
The current cold chain is capable of storing additional quantity of vaccine required for the first three crore prioritised population lile health care workers and front line workers, the ministry added.
-RJV
