‘CENTRE READY AS INDIA’S COVID VACCINE MAY ARRIVE EARLY’

Talking about the EVIN, an official said the network is being implemented under the National Health Mission (NHM) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which aims to provide real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in the country. This robust system has been used with the requisite customization during the Covid pandemic for ensuring continuation of the essential immunization services and “protecting our children and pregnant mothers against vaccine preventable diseases”.

According to information provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the EVIN has reached 32 states and Union Territories (UTS) and will soon be rolled out in the remaining states and UTS of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Ladakh and Sikkim. At present, 23,507 cold chain points across 585 districts of 22 states and two UTS routinely use the EVIN technology for efficient vaccine logistics management. Over 41,420 vaccine cold chain handlers have been introduced for digital recordkeeping by training them on EVIN. Nearly 23,900 electronic temperature loggers have been installed on vaccine cold chain equipment for accurate temperature review of vaccines in storage.

To support the Government of India’s efforts to combat Covid-19, EVIN India is helping the state/ut governments monitor the supply chain of Covid response material. Since April 2020, eight states (Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra) are using the EVIN application with 100% adherence rate to track state specific

Covid-19 material supplies, ensure availability and raise alerts in case of shortage of 81 essential drugs and equipment.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), on the other hand, said with its inputs and support, the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 will help Indian firms interested in any candidate vaccines, and facilitate the process of ensuring that relevant testing data is made available to India’s regulatory agencies.

MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the government has set up a national expert group on vaccine administration for Covid-19. The purpose of the group, he said, is to keep India in the forefront of any ongoing efforts worldwide to innovate, prepare, produce and launch candidate vaccines to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, for India and for the world.

“Through the inputs and support of MEA, this expert group will help connect Indian companies which are interested in any candidate vaccines, and facilitate the process of ensuring that the relevant testing data is made available to our regulatory agencies,” Srivastava said.