New Delhi: Working in collaboration with each other to optimise COVID-19 vaccine delivery when it is available, the Centre and the Delhi government have now zeroed in on around 630 vaccine cold storage facilities in the Capital, including Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, LNJP Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital among other nursing homes and Mohalla Clinics, Director of Community Medicine and World Health Organisation Fellow, Dr Suneela Garg said.
An official in the Central government confirmed that work on designing an efficient vaccine delivery system for Delhi had already begun. Dr Garg, however, added that the private sector has not yet been roped in and the currently available numbers are based on government or government-affiliated centres.
Since the vaccine will be coming in large numbers, the primary storage facility has been identified at two facilities at Battery Lane in the Civil Lanes area and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital. Dr Garg added that the vaccine distribution planning will first be done at the state level and then district-wise and that district officials will play a crucial role in the coming days.
"Around 1,800 healthcare workers have been identified so far to administer the vaccine," Dr Garg, who is also the National President of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (IAPSM) and a public health advisor to the ICMR, said.
The biggest challenge, however, she said, is for governments — state or centre — to manage risk communication by sensitising people on the possible side effects or minimal side effects that the vaccine may have. "People need to be informed that this vaccine which is injectable and not a polio drop can have allergic reactions and what they should do in such circumstances," Dr Garg said.
The initial phase of vaccination will begin with health care workers like doctors, frontline workers like police and army personnel and other categories as well which add up to a total of 13 categories
of medical staff who will be the first to receive the vaccine, followed by people above the age of 65 and those with comorbidities, an official working in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on account of anonymity.
An app to monitor vaccination
In a bid to digitise the entire process, the central government is also working on a mobile application — Covin — which will give region-wise data on the availability of the vaccine and the number of shots required or pending for an individual. "Aadhar details will most likely be used in the app as it is an already existing unique ID of every individual and keeping track of who has received the first shot or who is due for the second one will be easily tracked," another official from MoFHW said. State-wise vaccine centres and cold storage places will also be available on the app, the official added.
"We have begun the process of identifying healthcare workers and creating an electronic database of it so that when the vaccine is approved, the process of vaccination can commence immediately," a senior official in the Health Department of the Delhi Government said.
The official also added that Delhi is the ideal model as the polio vaccine programme was also first implemented in the Capital and following its structural success it was carried out in the rest of the country the official said.
Some of the vaccines that are being considered by the Central government are — 'Covishield' by the Serum Institute of India (SII) which has tied up with AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and 'Covaxin' manufactured by Bharath Biotech.