PremiumA 'safe and effective' vaccine against novel coronavirus could become a reality soon. India has already started registration process for distributing the vaccine as soon as it is available. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation on Saturday has launched an online portal for vaccine registration, news agency PTI reported. The coronavirus vaccine will be offered first to healthcare workers, frontline workers and those above 50 years of age and people under 50 years of age with comorbidities.
The citizens from priority groups in the city who have not yet registered with health workers carrying out house-to-house survey or at urban health centres, can get themselves registered on the portal, the civic body said. The portal can be accessible at www.ahmedabadcity.gov.in. "This facility is only for citizens who have yet registered themselves with health workers or at urban health centres," the statement said, according to PTI,
People from the priority groups can also visit the nearest urban health centres their identity cards such as driving licence, PAN card, or voters' ID etc to register themselves.
The registration process for healthcare workers, frontline workers, people above the age of 50 and those under 50 who are suffering from comorbid conditions have already started, an official release stated. Gujarat government earlier said it has already identified around 3.9 lakh healthcare workers as the first priority group for COVID-19 vaccination. The list includes 2.71 lakh government doctors, nurses, lab technicians and Class III and IV employees. At lest 1.25 lakh doctors, nurses, lab technicians and employees of private hospitals engaged in COVID-19 duty are also there in the list.
The police, home guards and others engaged indirectly in COVID-19 treatment and services will be given the second priority, state health minister Nitin Patel had said earlier.
COVID-19 vaccination: Dry run from next week
The central government will arrange a dry run of vaccination in four states — Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Punjab. The exercise will take place on 28 December and 29 December. Each state will plan the vaccination dry rum in two districts and preferably in different (five) sessions — district hospital, CHC/PHC, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach etc. "This will exercise enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of COVID-19 vaccination process (except the vaccine) and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment, the linkages between planning, implementation and reporting mechanisms and identify challenges and guide way forward prior to actual implementation including improvements that may be required in the envisaged process. This will also provide a hands-on experience to programme managers at various levels," statement said.
"To strengthen the capacity of our human resource for COVID-19 vaccine introduction and roll-out, detailed training modules have been developed for different categories of vaccine handlers and administrators including medical officers, vaccinatior, alternate vaccinators, cold chain handlers, supervisors, data managers, ASHA coordinators and all others involved in the implementation process at different levels," the ministry of health and family welfare said in a statement.
