The Government plans to rope in over 1.54 lakh Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) to execute its Covid-19 immunisation plan among its vaccinating priority groups—frontline workers including all healthcare professionals in the first stage, emergency workers in the second stage and people with co-morbidity in the third stage.
Sharing the details of the proposed Covid-19 immunisation programme with reporters at a press briefing here, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan hinted that the vaccination might start soon, once the vaccine is approved.
While 2.38 lakh auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) provide various health services including vaccination under universal immunisation programme, only 1.54 lakh such health workers will be used for COVID-19 inoculation. “We do not want to hamper our routine immunisation programme,” he said.
The existing cold chain facilities in India are capable of storing the first shipment of nearly three crore novel coronavirus vaccines that have been earmarked for frontline healthcare and medical workers, said Bhushan.
Delhi and Hyderabad airports have already begun prepping temperature-controlled containers and zones to store millions of doses expected to be made available over the next few weeks and months.
Both airports, which already have advanced pharma and vaccine storage and processing zones, also have special “cool chambers” in which temperature can be set as low as -20 degrees Celsius and “cool dollies”, or special trolleys that ensure vaccines are protected (and optimum temperatures maintained) during movement of cargo between the aircraft and cargo terminal.
In addition, both airports, which operated as major hubs in the early days of the pandemic and transported millions of PPE kits, medical supplies and perishable goods, have also taken steps to minimise human contact with the chain of transportation and storage of the vaccine doses.
The Government has also created an application Co-WIN which can be downloaded by the vaccine users, so that the authorities can monitor the process from the beginning to the end.
The Health Secretary said, “Process of collecting database of health workers has started across all States and UTs and Central Ministries. This data is being uploaded on CO-WIN software. This data will be verified.”
He explained that on the basis of the “National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) has recommended, around one crore health workers would be given priority in the vaccination drive.
“As per the NEGVAC recommendation, inoculation groups have been prioritised--- healthcare providers and workers in healthcare setting, personnel from state and & central police, armed forces, home guards, civil defence and disaster management volunteers and municipal workers and persons above 50 years,” he said.