State govt ready with work plan for Covid-19 vaccination drive

Work related to the maintenance of cold chain, uploading data of the beneficiaries on Covid portal, training of vaccinators completed in majority of the districts

LUCKNOW : A day after Union Health minister Harsh Vardhan announced that India will start vaccinating people for Covid-19 in January, the Uttar Pradesh government has prepared a work plan to launch a statewide drive.

Additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad said, the state government was likely to receive the consignments of the vaccine in January and a drive will be organised in a phased manner in the 75 districts according to the guidelines announced by the Centre.

The works regarding the maintenance of cold chain, uploading data of the beneficiaries on Covid portal, training of vaccinators and uploading of the data of health workers on the portal has been completed in the majority of the districts, he said.

“The district magistrates and

chief medical officers have been directed to complete the training of vaccinators and health officers by December 27 and upload their list on the Covid portal,” he said.

According to the guidelines of the Central government, the vaccination programme will be organised in three phases. In the first phase, health workers like the officers and employees working in government and private health units, ASHA workers, Aganwadi workers and supervisors will be vaccinated.

In the second phase, front line workers of other government

departments like the state and central police personnel, homeguard jawans, prison staff, local bodies- municipal corporation staff, personnel deployed in the rescue and relief work during the natural calamities will be vaccinated.

In the third phase, people above 50 years as well as those below 50 years but with co-morbidities like diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and respiratory disease will be vaccinated.

The state health department has decided to identify 1,500 spots for the first phase vaccination. It includes government

district hospitals, government and private medical colleges, community health centers, primary health centers and railway hospitals.

Three sessions of vaccination will organised in hospitals while more than three sessions can be organised in big hospitals according to the availability of space. Three rooms- waiting room, vaccination room and evaluation rooms will be reserved in each hospital, he said.

In each session, 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated. For the vaccination of the health workers two sessions will be organised each week to complete the drive in three days. The vaccination sessions will be organised on each Monday and Friday. The list of beneficiaries will be uploaded on Covid portal, he said.

The DMs have been directed to constitute district, tehsil and block task forces to review the drive in the respective areas. The officers of all the state government departments as well as representatives of WHO, UNICEF and UNDP will be members of the task force.

The medical waste will be disposed off according to the guidelines issued by the state government, he said and added that the control rooms will be established at the district and block level in all 75 districts.

“All the DMs and CMOs have been directed to launch massive campaign highlighting the utility and quality of the vaccine to motivate the people to get themselves immunized,” he said.

Adequate security arrangements should be made during the transportation of the vaccine.

“Security personnel will be deployed 24 hours at the cold chain points that will be under CCTV surveillance. However, there will be no video recording or CCTV in the vaccination rooms during the vaccination session, he added.