CENTRE GETS READY TO VACCINATE A QUARTER OF INDIA’S POPULATION IN FIRST PHASE

In what is going to be the world’s largest immunisation programme ever carried out at one go, more than 30 crore, or about one-fourth of India’s total population will be administered Covid-19 vaccines. For this the Narendra Modi government has finalised an extensive, targeted strategy, which will be implemented with the active involvement of various levels of administrators and healthcare and other professionals—right from the top-most office of India to the ground level workers who will administer the Covid-19 vaccines to Indians in a phased manner.

To ensure that a humongous exercise of this nature is carried out without any glitch, the Union government has created a National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19

(NEGVAC) under the chairpersonship of Member (Health) NITI Aayog and Co-chairpersonship of Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), with representation from Secretaries from Ministry of External Affairs, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Health Research, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Director General Health Services, Director of AIIMS Delhi, Director

NARI and representatives from NTAGI, Ministry of Finance and five state governments representing all the regions of India.

NEGVAC will be the nodal agency for guidance on all aspects of Covid-19 vaccine introduction in India, including regulatory guidance on vaccine trials, vaccine selection, equitable distribution of vaccine, procurements, financing, delivery mechanisms, prioritization of population groups, vaccine safety surveillance, regional cooperation and assisting neighbouring countries, communication, media response, etc.

Official sources say that a lot of homework has been done on the entire exercise, considering the scale of the exercise and the fact that something like this is happening for the first time in the country.

Under NEGVAC, 20 Union ministries are converging at the national level to support

A man wearing a Santa Claus costume sanitises children’s hands inside a slum, amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), in Mumbai, on Saturday. various aspects of Covid-19 vaccination. Each of these ministries has been given a separate role. International organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, UNDP, John Snow, Inc. (JSI), a US based-public health research and consulting firm, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, too, are going to play important roles in the rollout of the vaccine.

“Right from training those who will administer the vaccine, to vaccine logistics, a lot of thinking has gone into it. A system has been put in place for effective tracking mechanisms at every step, ensuring field visits and desk review of data at national and state levels, monitoring of vaccination activities which will be done through daily evening meetings, standardized monitoring tools, mobile based apps and collation of real-time data from planning units to the national level. We have tried to ensure that no blind spot is left,” a senior health ministry official said.

HOW COVID-19 VACCINES WILL BE ADMINISTERED

TARGET POPULATION, PHASE 1 VACCINATION: The Covid-19 vaccine, once available in India, will be distributed in a phased manner so that the most needy and vulnerable get the vaccine before others. In the first phase, the government has