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Bengal

GPS system to be fitted in vans transporting Covid-19 vaccines

GPS system to be fitted in vans transporting Covid-19 vaccines
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Kolkata: State Health department will install a Global Positioning (GPS) system in all the refrigerated vans which will be used to transport vaccines to the districts from the city.

The aim of the move is to ensure better surveillance on the entire functioning and also to bring better coordination between various government departments.

The health department officials will be able to keep a tab on the vans sitting at Swasthya Bhawan. According to sources more than 30 refrigerated vans will have GPS systems installed on them. These vans will be mostly used for ferrying the vaccines to the far off districts. All the 23 districts will have one dedicated van for

carrying the vaccines to designated points.

The vaccines may also be transported through railways on the basis of the situation after the vaccination programme is launched.

A senior official of the health department said that vaccines would initially be stored at Bagbazar medical store after they landed at the Calcutta airport.

From the medical store the vaccines would be taken to the medical colleges and other hospitals in the districts and the other designated centers and the district medical stores in the block level. The GPS controlled insulated vans would be used mostly to dispatch the doses from the main center to the district medical stores. There will be dedicated staff to monitor the vans through the GPS.

The Health department has already urged all the medical colleges in the state to be prepared for any unforeseen situation.

They have also been directed to keep critical care beds on an emergency basis. If ant health care professionals develop any side effects after receiving the vaccines they would be admitted to the medical colleges and other hospitals across the state.

"The Health department has instructed us to keep adequate arrangements for admitting the people who will develop side effects after receiving the vaccines. Enough critical care beds would be made available," a top official of the medical college in the city said.

There will be 7-10 centers of vaccination inside the campus of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) which is one of the designated Covid hospitals in the city. More than 7,000 staff members of the CMCH would be administered vaccines at these centers.

It may be mentioned here that doctors, nurses, health care professionals would receive the vaccines in the first phase along with other professionals who have been fighting the Covid battle from the front.

The state government has already prepared a list of 6 lakh health professionals and the lists for other front line workers are underway. Altogether more than one crore people may receive the vaccine in the first phase in Bengal.

There around more than 69 centers erected across the state where vaccination drives would take place. The state government has already conducted mock drills to check the preparedness.

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