First logistics blueprints released by expert committee regarding Covid-19 vaccination drive in India

Last updated on February 21st, 2023 at 12:32 pm

First logistics blueprints: After Pfizer and Serum Institute of India approached India’s medical regulatory body DCGI seeking approval for their vaccine against Covid-19, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech too approached the body on Monday for approval of India’s first indigenous Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin. Citing the progress country is making in manufacturing and procuring Covid-19 vaccine, high level expert committee is working on logistics to administer the vaccine in India. 

A government official said, “The subject expert committee will look at all the three vaccine candidate (Pfizer, Serum and Bharat Biotech), on the basis of which a final decision will be taken by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).” 

After 97% of government facilities and 70% of private centres submitted the data of frontline workers in country who will be the first lot to receive vaccines, final logistics blueprint were drawn by the national expert committee on Covid-19 vaccine administration. Experts note that initial adverse reactions are to be expected just after vaccination is done, and hence the guidelines have been issued to hold three separate rooms in each centre for vaccination. In each session 100 people will be administered vaccine.

The government source said, “In the first room, the beneficiary will have to wait; the second room is where the actual vaccine administration will take place; and finally, they will be directed to the observation room, where they will have to sit for 30 minutes because some of the adverse reactions occur during this period.” 

“The CoWin IT system allows vaccination sessions to be created, and vaccination sites to be fixed. Once that is done, each vaccination session will be for 100 vaccinations. After 30 minutes, the vaccinators will report the adverse event, if any, on the digital platform,” the source added.

The data that was submitted by facilities pan India about frontline workers to receive vaccine on priority, is currently being uploaded on the CoWin platform for verification and authentication. Along with that data about 2.39 lakh vaccinators, majority of which are ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) are also being uploaded on the platform. 

Expert committee has also asked states to expand reporting structure of AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunisation) surveillance. District Immunisation Officers have also been instructed to prepare list of government and private hospitals and contact head of that facility to appoint a nodal officer to whom AEFI would be reported. This nodal officer would be in charge of conducting an instructional session with doctors and staff to train on carrying out immunization drive. All adverse reactions will be recorded in an “AEFI register” under severe, serious and minor sub-sections by medical officers, and would have to reviewed by nodal officer on a weekly basis. 

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