An SOP released by the Health Ministry of India on Saturday, 12 December, states that only 100 people are likely to get vaccinated per "session" against COVID-19, and that the number of people in each of these sessions may go up to 200, if logistics allow.
The states and territories can fix the days for vaccination. “Conduct of the vaccination process will be similar to the election process,” the ministry said in the document called 'COVID-19 Vaccines Operational Guidelines'.
"Anticipating that COVID-19 vaccine may soon be available, GoI (Government of India) is preparing for its introduction in the country so that it can be expeditiously rolled out when available. One of the milestones in this direction has been the constitution of a National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC). The NEGVAC guides on all aspects of COVID-19 vaccine introduction in India," the SOP states.
"One session for 100 beneficiaries. While most of the healthcare and frontline workers would be vaccinated at fixed session sites, vaccination of other high-risk population may require outreach session sites, and mobile sites and teams," it said.
The document explains that a vaccination team will have five members – the main officer helped by four others. The main officer could be a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or anyone legally qualified to give an injection.
The second officer will be in charge of security and will guard the entry point at the vaccination session, while the third will be present to verify documents. The fourth and fifth officers will be responsible for crowd management and communication.
It also contains details about training vaccine workers and keeping logistics in place.
Registration Through Co-Win App
The government in the SOP also stated that the beneficiaries will be tracked through a digital platform called Co-WIN. All information on this platform will be updated in real-time.
With the help of digital platform system 'COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN)', the tracking of vaccine and vaccine users will be done on a real-time basis.
The registration on Co-WIN can be done with a voter ID, Aadhaar card, driving license, passport, or pension document.
The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation's (CDSCO) Subject Expert Committee on Wednesday, 9 December, asked the Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech to submit more data and information to get emergency use authorisation (EUA) for their COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
On Tuesday, the Union Health Ministry informed that as many as eight COVID-19 vaccine candidates are in different stages of clinical trials which could be ready for authorisation in near future.
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