PM Narendra Modi’s High Level Review Meeting Regarding COVID Vaccines Preparations and Vaccination drive starts from 16th January 2021.
On 9th of January, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chaired a high-level review meeting with health officials to take a brief look at the status of Covid-19, various preparations and training of Vaccinators in all the 28 Indian states and 9 Union Territories. Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary of Prime Minister, Health Secretary, and other senior officials were a part of today’s meeting who gave a brief introduction to Prime Minister Modi from Covid Vaccination dry run to training of Vaccinators in the country.
Prime Minister took various details and reviewed the status of COVID-19 management by covering all the major issues. It is also to be taken into consideration that two vaccines namely, Covishield and Covaxin has been granted an approval for Emergency use Authorization or Accelerated Approval by a panel oriented by Central Government.
Talking about safety of the Vaccines VG Somani, Drug controller general of India had earlier issued a statement saying “We’ll never approve anything if there is slightest of safety concern. The vaccines are 110 per cent safe. Some side effects like mild fever, pain and allergy are common for every vaccine.”
PM Modi has been given whole overview of the preparedness status of the Centre in close collaboration with all the Indian States and Union Territory governments, in today’s meeting. The vaccination exercise in underpinned by the principles of people’s participation called as, Jan Bhagidari in Hindi. Utilizing experience of elections, simply called booth strategy and Universal Immunization Program (UIP). Few other principles include,
- No compromise with existing healthcare services especially national programs and primary health care.
- No compromise on scientific and regulatory norms and other SOPs
- An orderly and smooth implementation driven by technology.
It was already alleged that three crore healthcare workers and Frontline workers who are called “most Prioritised Beneficiaries” will be given priority in giving Vaccination. In which one crore health workers and two crore frontline workers will get vaccinated against COVID Virus in the initial phases of vaccination itself.
- These Frontline and healthcare workers have been kept under two categories as Under-50 and Above-50.
- People with above 50 will get vaccinated earlier than the under-50.
- This step of Vaccinating Over-50 ” most prioritised beneficiaries” before than the under-50 is justified because people above the age of fifty have lower immunity which makes them more prove to getting infected with the virus.
CO-Win App
Prime Minister was also talked about the Co-WIN Vaccine Delivery Management System in today’s meeting. This unique digital platform, Co-WIN app will provide some real time data about vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This platform will also assist the program managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries of vaccines, their verification and for generating a digital certificate once the schedule of Vaccination is successfully completed. By looking at the benefits of Co-WIN platform about 80 lakh beneficiaries have already registered themselves.
Discussion on Training Process
Training process of the Vaccine administrators and Vaccinators was also a part of discussion in today’s meeting. As it is an important part of Vaccination operation PM Modi gave it a good amount of time to discuss about all the minute details regarding preparedness, process and challenges faced while working on ground level. During national level Training of Trainers, total 2,360 participants were trained thoroughly. These Trainers includes state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners etc.
At blocks, districts and states level, about two Lakh Vaccinators, more than 60,000 program managers and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained till date as a part of trainings at various levels. Prime Minister was also given complete details on the three phases of dry runs which have been conducted throughout the whole country.
First round of dry run was conducted in the states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, and Punjab last year on 28 to 29 December 2020. And third dry run was conducted on 8th of January 2021 across 615 districts covering 4895 session sites in 33 States/UTs.
After having a brief discussion on all the safety measures, Vaccination process, training of Vaccinators and CO-WIN app it was decided that COVID-19 Vaccination process will start taking place from 16th of January, 2021. Despite all the preparations this process is slightly delayed by looking at the major up-coming Indian festival like Pongal, Lohri, Makar Sankranti, and Bihu etc. Also note, that there will be no charges for getting vaccinated against the virus if you are a legal citizen of the country.
Covid19 Vaccine Dry Run Review
Health Minister Harshvardhan Goel himself has issued a statement few days back talking about availability of the vaccines, he said, “ Not just in Delhi, it will be free across the country, and feedbacks received after the dry run in four states were included in guidelines for vaccination and today’s dry run in all states/UTs is being conducted as per new guidelines. Except for giving the actual vaccine, every procedure is being followed during the drill”.
