Government plans special immunisation programme for COVID-19 vaccine

The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, as soon as accessible, might be distributed underneath a special COVID-19 immunisation programme with the Centre procuring the doses straight and making it accessible for precedence teams, official sources mentioned.

According to them, the Centre will procure the vaccine on to make it accessible to the precedence teams free-of-charge by the present community of States and districts. States have been requested to not chart separate pathways of procurement, they mentioned.

The Centre, with the assistance of State and Union Territory governments, has began the method of figuring out round 30 crore precedence beneficiaries who can be given vaccine dose within the preliminary part. This special COVID-19 immunisation programme would run in parallel with the Universal Immunisation Programme, however will use its processes, know-how and community of the present vaccine distribution framework, sources mentioned.

The authorities has demarcated 4 classes of individuals for vaccination within the preliminary part – round one crore healthcare professionals together with docs, MBBS college students, nurses and ASHA staff, and many others.; round two crore frontline staff together with municipal company staff, personnel of the police and armed forces; about 26 crore folks aged above 50; and a special group of these under 50 years of age with co-morbidities and requiring specialised care.

“States have been asked to enlist by mid-November the priority population groups…. Each person in the immunisation list will be linked with their Aadhaar cards so as to track them,” a supply mentioned.

The current digital platform and processes used for the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) are being enhanced to trace COVID-19 vaccine administration and motion – from procurement to storage to distribution to particular person beneficiaries – as and when the vaccine turns into accessible, Health Ministry officers have mentioned.

Also, on-line coaching modules are being developed for vaccinators. The digital platform that’s being enhanced is Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN), which supplies real-time data on vaccine shares and storage temperatures throughout all chilly chain factors within the nation underneath UIP.

Under UIP, kids, adolescents and pregnant ladies are at present vaccinated in opposition to vaccine-preventable ailments free-of-charge by the State.

The National Expert Committee on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 has already mapped the present chilly chain being utilised underneath the federal government’s immunisation programme and has additionally made a projection of the extra requirement, Health Ministry officers had mentioned earlier.

Presently, the Committee is engaged in mapping non-public sector services that would serve the wants of supplementing the chilly chain gear.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has mentioned that the Centre estimates to obtain and utilise 40-50 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine masking round 25 crore folks by July subsequent yr.

Mr. Vardhan had mentioned the federal government is working round the clock to make sure that there’s a honest and equitable distribution of vaccines, as soon as they’re prepared.

The greatest profit that India has is that it has a sturdy immunisation programme in place and it’s implementing the most important immunisation programme of the world, with practically 27 million newborns focused for immunisation yearly, the Minister mentioned.

“We have an established infrastructure for supply, storage and delivery of vaccines to the last mile, under our Universal Immunisation Programme, where we are administering around 600 million doses to children every year,” he mentioned.

“The strength of these experiences in the vaccination landscape, our best practices and the robustness of our health delivery system will be leveraged and augmented using a strong IT backbone to ensure that this humongous national mission of vaccinating the identified priority groups with COVID-19 vaccine is achieved in a timely manner. The Indian government will leverage the integrated IT platform eVIN for managing vaccine distribution,” Mr. Vardhan mentioned.

Mr. Vardhan re-affirmed the dedication of the Indian authorities and warranted that it has accorded high most precedence to the analysis and manufacturing to make sure that the vaccine reaches to the final particular person.

An issue erupted on Thursday after the BJP in its manifesto for the Bihar Assembly elections promised free COVID-19 vaccines, as soon as it’s accessible, for all.