OPEN HOUSE: WHAT STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN BY THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO ADMINISTER COVID VACCINE SMOOTHLY?

The invention of Covid vaccine has raised hopes of fighting the worst-ever health crisis the world is facing today. The Indian government is planning to launch a massive vaccination programme in mid-January to fight the deadly contagion effectively. But amid continuous decline in the number of cases and fatalities in the country, the emergence of a more transmissible variant of the disease might make the proposed task overwhelmingly onerous and cumbersome for the central and state governments. Besides issuing fresh guidelines for the Covid-19 surveillance, containment and caution and extending the standard safety protocols till January-end, the Union Health Ministry has asked four states, including Punjab to initiate a dry-run for the anti-Covid vaccine administration. It would assess overall preparedness of their health departments before commencement of the actual vaccination process and improve any shortcomings in the planning, implementation and reporting mechanism. This mock exercise has been successfully completed in Nawanshahr and Ludhiana districts. The state health authorities should make the following concerted efforts for administering Covid vaccine smoothly: to identify millions of recipients above 50 from the high-risk priority groups ie healthcare and frontline workers from private and public facilities, the elderly and people with co-morbidities, and register them on the CoWIN platform through their photo ID for data entry, allocation of date, time and designated session sites for both doses, verify their bonafide before vaccination, manage possible adverse events immediately, create additional storage, transport and distribution arrangement for vaccines, deployment of immunisation teams and management of the crowds at the session sites with proper safety precautions. The government should also ensure enough funds for the purpose; rope in private healthcare sector and check prices and black marketing of the vaccines.

Senior docs should be on their toes

Everybody is well acquainted with the fact that how Covid-19 has devastated the human life. The only hope to get rid of it is the vaccine and eventually the day has come which all of us were looking forward to it. The vaccine is out and the Health Department is all set to take care of it. It is a herculean task to deal with the vaccine as this ailment has already taken so many lives. It should be obligatory that senior officials from the Health Department take this charge instead of giving it to the nurses and compounders. The people should also cooperate with the team of doctors and must follow their guidelines.

Everybody must be alert & cooperative

Human society is replete with different diseases at different times. From pandemics like Plague, Spanish Flu, Aids to the present Covid-19, millions of lives have been lost. But as the diseases were there, so were the therapies and vaccines were discovered and invented. This pandemic has also resulted in crores of fatalities worldwide. Fortunately, the medical science has come up with a number of vaccines at good speed; Sputnik, Astra-Zeneca, Pfizer and Moderna are being marketed. India has a larger population compared to many other countries where they are being administered. So, the government has to gird up its preparations for vaccinating the entire population. Sputnik and Astra-Zeneca have to be stored at 4 degree centigrade, whereas the two at -70 degree temperatures which is not possible in India. The government should ask the municipalities, corporations and health authorities to do the needful as these bodies have data of population, their names, age and addresses. The elderly people, children below 10 years and people with co-morbidities like diabetes, heart diseases etc should be given those shots on priority basis. The medical staff like doctors, nurses and other health workers should also be given preference for vaccinations. Their record and data should be registered properly because second dose is to be given after 21 or 28 days. The antibodies come up a week or so after the second dose. So, the people have to take due precautions during that time like mask-wearing, social distancing and frequent hand washing. It is a war-like situation. So everybody should be alert and cooperative.

Keep a Centralised database of each dist

Daily news reports that the Health Department and district administrations are planning the most efficient way for administering the vaccine smoothly keeping the priority parameter in mind in which the healthcare and essential service workers and senior citizens are covered. So far, the administration is doing a great job planning everything prior to the arrival of the vaccine by running dry runs of vaccines in various districts timely, identifying the vaccine distribution centres, registering healthcare workers, etc. In order to keep it smooth, the easiest way is to build a centralised database of each district keeping a record of the Aadhar card number of the person who is receiving the vaccine with a timestamp and a history of any recently encountered disease or a chronic one. The database should be synchronised every 24 hours with other districts of the state to keep an eye on the distributed vaccines in contrast to the used ones. This will eliminate the risk of resale in black. Furthermore, as the vaccination will only be available at government and civic bodies, the role of medical superintendents becomes quite crucial. To avoid any bribe and unfair means, the medical superintendent’s post should be exchanged with the neighbouring district’s vaccination centres. A majority lies in the fear of the vaccine’s reliability of encountering the virus without any side-effects. They prefer using precautions without any vaccination. Therefore, an awareness campaign should come into play as a second phase where the feedback of the immune ones is campaigned and shared on social media and other platforms to eliminate the fears. A booth can be set up at major travelling points such as airports, railway stations, bus stands where the passenger traffic density is high. The vaccination should be done with the consent of the passenger to avoid any dispute. The cost will also play a crucial factor in its distribution. The vaccine can be subsidised for people falling below BPL such as daily wage workers, labourers etc for mass immunisation.

The Health Department is preparing to administer Covid vaccination, which is the only visible remedy to stop people from contracting the virus. As it will be a challenging task for the government to administer vaccine, the dose should be given in two parts (half dose followed by full second dose). We must show patience and need not panic. It will take three to six months to administer the vaccine as lakhs of doses of medicines will be needed. These would need cold storage facility. The government should make a detailed list of who should be given the dose on priority. Healthcare workers followed by senior citizens and diabetic and kidney patients should be administered the dose to begin with. The government should set up centres or booths in every area and take the help of healthcare workers and anganwari and government teachers. Also start online facility for registration to avoid chaos. Make a list of 50 to 100 people. Make waiting, vaccination and observation areas to observe its side-effects. The preparations should be undertaken on a war footing.

Based upon the broad guidelines issued by the Central Health Ministry, the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN), a digitalised platform, will be used to track the enlisted beneficiaries for vaccination and Covid-19 vaccines on a real-time basis. The task of administering the vaccine to the identified target groups as per defined prioritisation is not as much difficult as to check the spread of the deadly virus. And certainly it will be a big challenge for the administration to implement it smoothly. As the dry run of the vaccines has been successfully carried out, the next step will be fixing the time schedule and venues as per proximity and convenience of the group selected for immunisation. There will be no problem with healthcare workers who are chosen to be vaccinated in the beginning as they are mentally prepared and professionally trained for such types of situations. However, it will be a challenging task to those people who are above 50 years of age which is to be further bifurcated as per their medical history and immunity levels for prioritisation. The government needs to give due publicity through print and electronic media and social media for awareness and discipline required for both pre and post vaccination process. As the government has already come out with centralized website and with required data and comprehensive guidelines, there will be no problem in fixing time and venue for those who will be called for vaccination. Sufficient time and adequate information needs to be given online through SMS/email on mobile of intended beneficiaries. A centralised grievances cell/a 24-hour helpline may be kept operational on a real-time basis for quick remedy for those affected in any way after vaccination.

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Source: The Tribune India

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