Four-tier workforce to oversee vaccine drive

The authorities have put in place afour-tier supervisory and management system that stretches down to the district and block levels to ensure a smooth roll-out of the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination programme, which will begin on January 16.

Assisted by committees, task forces and control room personnel, an army of government officials and representatives of foreign aid agencies will monitor the immunisation drive at every level and act to keep the programme on track if anything goes amiss, people familiar with the matter said.

This command structure will also include dedicated units to tackle any adverse events following immunization. At the state as well as district levels, special committees on adverse events have been formed, in line with the official guidelines.

The National Expert Group on Covid Vaccine (NEGVAC), the nerve-cent re of then ar end ra mo di government for all vaccine-related issues, has played its role since August 2020. Now, as the vials started reaching the hinterland of India, it is the turn of the rest of the machinery to get into the act.

Every state will have a steering committee as well as a task force and a control room to monitor the immunisation drive. The steering committee will be headed by the chief secretary and the health secretary will head the task force.

The steering committee, comprising representatives of several departments, has been assigned tasks such as oversight on the creation of a database of health-care workers, review of the preparedness of the cold chain, operational planning and even to devise strategies to tackle“anticipated statespecific challenges ,” the people cited above said.

The state task force, which meetsatleast once afortnight, will oversee the roll-out of the vaccines, develop a media plan to address rumors and will be responsible for social mobilization of vaccine recipients. It will resolve issues of micro-planning, logistics, human resource availability, training and waste management.

The control rooms, with a clear chain of command, will be involved in day-to-day planning for mobilization of workforce and logistics. The guidelines issued by the Centre said: “They need to over see that while planning for the sessions and session site allocation” and “ensure that there is no delayed decision making.”

The urban centres, which are expected to see a higher concentration of vaccine recipients and vaccination sites, will have their own separate task forces. Headed by the municipal commissioner, theirworkwill be similar to that of their district counterpart.

The block task force, headed by a sub-divisional magistrate or a block development officer, will meet every week and are entrusted with identifying va cc in at ors across government and private sectors, monitor the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines at the block level and ensure minimal disruption of other routine health services.

“For us, it is an extension of the ongoing universal immunization programme. But this is the first time, a vaccination of such a large scale is taking place in a timebound manner. No wonder there willbeseveral backroomboysand managers,” an official familiar with the matter said.