New Delhi: The Centre has asked all states to identify healthcare workers, including doctors, pharmacists as well as MBBS and BDS interns. These healthcare workers will carry out a COVID-19 inoculation drive once a vaccine is available. In this aspect the Centre has written a letter to all states and Union Territories (UTs). In it the Centre has said MBBS and BDS doctors as well as interns, staff nurses, auxiliary nurse midwives and pharmacists would be considered as potential vaccinators. All those who have experience in administering injection will be pressed into service.
“Further, the states may also consider retired personnel from above mentioned categories, as applicable, that may be utilised to meet the demand for vaccinators,” the letter written November 23 by Additional Secretary, Union Health Ministry, Vandana Gurnani said.
According to Union Health Ministry officials, the anti-coronavirus vaccine, once available, would be distributed under a special COVID-19 inoculation programme.
The letter said the government has initiated preparations for introduction of COVID-19 vaccine upon its availability. As part of it, one of the activities is creation of a database of healthcare workers who will be prioritised for coronavirus vaccine.
This database will be uploaded on COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoVIN), the Centre said. It is reiterated that the potential vaccinators among the healthcare workers need to be identified for support during the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the letter stated.
“You are kindly requested to direct the concerned officials to ensure identification of the mentioned potential vaccinators in the database of healthcare workers being created for upload on CoVIN software. Appropriate training of the potential vaccinators will be carried out before utilising them for COVID-19 vaccination drives,” the letter read.
According to sources, around one crore frontline healthcare workers, including doctors, MBBS students, nurses and ASHA workers among others been identified who will be given the COVID-19-vaccine whenever it becomes available.
It may be mentioned here that the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has offered the services of its over three lakh members in the COVID-19 inoculation programme of the government, once a vaccine is available, It has also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to effectively use its trained manpower for this noble cause.
The Health Ministry has also asked states to conduct planning and mapping of vaccination sessions where healthcare workers will be vaccinated during the first phase. Mapping human resources across departments could be deployed for vaccination sessions for verification of beneficiaries, crowd management and overall coordination.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had earlier said a COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be available by the first quarter of 2021. He had said the Centre estimates to receive and utilise 40-50 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine covering around 25 crore people by July next year.
“The prioritisation of groups for COVID-19 vaccine shall be based on two key considerations – occupational hazard and risk of exposure to infection, and the risk of developing severe disease and increased mortality,” he had said.