Centre issues guidelines for COVID-19 Vaccination | Fusion - WeRIndia

As the central government is going to roll out the coronavirus vaccine in the coming months, it issued new guidelines to follow after the availability of the vaccine.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan said that the government proposed to roll out the vaccine for around 300 million people in the first phase by July 2021.

In this context, the health ministry released operational guidelines to state governments and union territories for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine.

Here is the list of guidelines issued by the Centre:

• In the first phase, frontline warriors and people aged above 50 years will be given priority. So, they will get COVID-19 vaccine, followed by people below 50 years of age with comorbidities. At last, remaining people will get the vaccine as per the availability and pandemic situation.
• The priority group may be divided further into two groups: People aged above 60 years and those between 50 and 60 years.
• The latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections will be used to identify the priority group of aged above 50 years.
• Frontline warriors like healthcare workers will be vaccinated at fixed session sites. However, other people will have to reach session sites and mobile sites.
• Vaccination days can be fixed on specific days by states and UTs.
• Beneficiaries will have to pre-register; no on-the-spot vaccination will be available at the site. 100 registered beneficiaries would be vaccinated per session. It may go up to 200 beneficiaries as per the availability of logistics. Due to the limitations, around 14 people will be vaccinated per hour.
• The covid-19 vaccine will be introduced as soon as the training is completed at different planning units of the district, block, and other such sites.
• Community halls and makeshift tents will be used as vaccination sites.
• The vaccination team will have five members. These include a vaccinator from healthcare like a doctor, staff nurse, auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), pharmacist, or lady health visitor (LHV). A potential vaccinator must have the authorization to give the injection.
• The vaccination team also includes vaccination officers. A security guard from the police, home guard, civil defence etc. to check the registration status of a beneficiary at the entry point.
• One member of the team verifies the identification documents of the beneficiaries during the vaccination, while the remaining two members support the team by managing the crowd, providing information etc.
• Co-WIN system will be used to track the beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccine on a real-time basis. A surveillance system will be used to track adverse effects and follow-up events.

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