IT Correspondent
New Delhi, Dec 16:
Although no vaccine manufacturer has been granted its approval for emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine, the Union Health Ministry has already chalked out a cold chain infrastructure plan, for rollout of the vaccine, whenever one is ready.
The infrastructure would comprise 29,000 cold chain points, 240 walk-in coolers, 70 walk-in freezers, 45,000 ice-lined refrigerators, 41,000 deep-freezers, and 300 solar-freezers. The ministry plans to set up at least one centre in every block for managing any Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI). The States that do not have adequate cold chain infrastructure have already been provided with the equipment, union Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday.
The Centre has also sent the guidelines to the states and UTs for estimating electrical and non-electrical cold chain equipment and their strengthening. These guidelines would help them ascertain how much cold chain equipment they would require to safely preserve the vaccine they receive for inoculation, Bhushan said.
All 36 states and UTs have held meetings of their Steering Committees, headed by Chief Secretaries, and State Task Forces, headed by State Health Secretaries, set up specifically for the purpose of vaccine management and administration. Similarly, 633 districts in the country have held meetings of their task force set up for the purpose.
As many as 23 Central and State government ministries and departments have been given the task of planning, implementation, social mobilisation and awareness creation on the vaccine. Bhushan said modules for training doctors and vaccinators have been prepared and at the national and State levels the training has already been completed. Since this would be the first time that adults will be administered vaccines in such huge numbers, the government plans to closely monitor any adverse event. This is important because earlier vaccines were administered in hospital settings and given mostly to children.
In Mumbai, the Covid-19 task force, headed by the BMC’s Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani, recently held its first meeting to draw a blueprint for vaccine storage, transportation, and distribution. Kakani said that 500 teams of 5 people each would be trained and deployed to vaccinate Mumbai. In the first phase, 1.25 lakh healthcare workers will be vaccinated. BMC aims to finish vaccinating these people in 10 to 15 days. After about 21 to 28 days, these people would be given the second dose.
