Govt's COVID vaccine roll-out planning accessed; Know about Co-WIN mobile app for registry

With the COVID-19 vaccine development accelerating in India, the Central government has released a detailed plan along with essential guidelines for launching mass vaccination drive across the country. Vaccinating 100-200 people in each session per day, monitoring them for 30 minutes after administering the shots for any adverse event and allowing only one beneficiary at a time are among the guidelines issued by to the states for the COVID-19 inoculation drive.

Mobile Application to record beneficiaries - Co-WIN

As per the guidelines, a digitalized platform system named COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) will be used to track enlisted beneficiaries for the vaccination on a real-time basis. Only pre-registered beneficiaries will be vaccinated in accordance with prioritisation of groups. The states have been directed to allocate the shots from one manufacturer to a district to avoid mixing of different COVID-19 vaccines in the field.

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The 'COVID-19 Vaccine Operational Guidelines’ called for strict measures to avoid exposing the vaccine carrier, vials or ice packs to direct sunlight. Vaccines and diluents will be stored inside the carrier with the lid covered until a beneficiary comes to receive it.

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The vaccination team will consist of five members, with each session vaccinating 100 beneficiaries per day. If the session site has adequate logistics and space available for waiting room and observation room along with arrangement for crowd management, one more vaccinator officer can be added to create a session for 200 beneficiaries, the guidelines stated.

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Priority groups for inoculation

The COVID-19 vaccine will be first administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with comorbidities, and finally to the remaining population.

The priority group of above 50 years may be further subdivided into those above 60 years of age and those between 50 to 60 years of age for purposes of phasing distribution based on vaccine availability. The latest electoral roll for Lok Sabha and legislative assembly election will be used to identify the population aged 50 years or more.

Under phase one of the vaccination, the government has planned to vaccinate nearly 30 crore population. In order to self-register on the Co-WIN website, the beneficiary must submit twelve photo-identity documents, including Voter ID, Aadhar card, driving license, passport and pension document.

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Here's the entire vaccine roll-out plan released by the Government