India's Covid Vaccination Drive: 100 People To Receive Shot In Each Session; Union Health Ministry Releases SOP

The Union Health Ministry has released a document titled 'Covid-19 Vaccines Operational Guidelines'. The 112-page document contains guidelines for inoculation drive whenever a vaccine is available. Read on.

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New Delhi: Only 100 people per "session" are likely to be vaccinated against Coronavirus, the centre stated in a document that charts out tentative plan for inoculation drive whenever a vaccine is available.  The number of people per session may go up as high as 200 people if logistics allow, the government has said. States and union territories will be able to fix the days for vaccination. "Anticipating that COVID-19 vaccine may soon be available, GoI is preparing for its introduction in the country so that it can be expeditiously rolled out when available. One of the milestones in this direction has been the constitution of a National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC). The NEGVAC guides on all aspects of COVID-19 vaccine introduction in India," the Health Ministry said. "Conduct of the vaccination process (will be) similar to the election process," the Health Ministry wrote in the document titled 'COVID-19 Vaccines Operational Guidelines'. The 112-page document also contains guidelines on aspects such as training vaccine workers and keeping logistics in place. The vaccines need cold storage units to keep them in usable condition. "One session for 100 beneficiaries. While most of the healthcare and frontline workers would be vaccinated at fixed session sites, vaccination of other high-risk population may require outreach session sites, and mobile sites and teams," the document states. A vaccination team will comprise of five members - the main officer with four aides. The officer can be a doctor, nurse, pharmacist or anyone legally qualified to give the injection. The second will security personell to check user registration and guard the entry point at the vaccination session. The third officer will verify documents, while the fourth and fifth officers will be responsible for managing crowd and communication as directed by the Home Ministry. Popular vaccine candidates in line for Emergency Use Authorisation include Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, Astrazeneca and Oxford university developed and Serum Institute of India manufactured 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin' by Bharat Biotech Limited. Pfizer India was first to submit its application to The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on December 4 and soon after, the Serum institute and Bharat Biotech also applied for the EUA. WATCH |UP Govt's new order for PG medical students: Work for 10 yrs or pay Rs 1 Crore fine