Medical teams should be trained for COVID-19 vaccination on lines of preparations made during elections: Harsh Vardhan

By Ashoke Raj
New Delhi [India], January 1 (ANI): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review preparedness at session sites across the country for COVID-19 vaccination trial run on Saturday and said just like preparations during elections, each member of medical teams should be trained responsibly.
The minister urged every official to ensure that the vaccination sites and officials in-charge abide by the detailed checklist and SOP for vaccination that has been prepared by the Union Health Ministry.
He said lists of health workers have been created and will be uploaded on COVID platform.
"Just like we prepare during elections, the same way we need to train each member of all medical teams responsibly. Let us attempt to implement it as a real exercise with attention to the minutest detail. Proper coordination will go a long way in building mutual understanding so that the upcoming vaccination drive may proceed without any glitch," he said.
The minister said that the target of this exercise is that minutest detail is thoroughly researched.
He said at least two vaccine manufacturers have sent their applications to Drug Controller and experts for approval and their data is being studied pro-actively.
Harsh Vardhan called for perfect calibration between the administrative and medical officers to make the event a primer that would later enable the mass implementation of vaccination drive.
Referring to Pulse Polio drive in Delhi in 1994, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that as the exercise of vaccination is integrally based on interaction and involvement of people, relevant stakeholders, NGOs and Civil Society Organization (CSOs) need to be mobilised.
He also stressed on the need for adequate security arrangements at session sites, cold chain points and during vaccine transportation.
The minister also spoke with officials of Delhi including Secretary (Health) Amit Singla, District Magistrates and District Immunization Officers of Shahdara, Central and South-West districts of Delhi where the three sites of Delhi are located.
These three sites are Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Shahdara, Urban Primary Health Centre, Daryaganj and Venkateshwar Hospital, Dwarka.
The officers told the meeting that the designated team have been adequately trained for the purpose and that they will be personally monitoring each and every aspect of the process to identify any gaps.
They also apprised the Minister of the preparations done for the dry run including setting up of session site, the process of updation and collation of data, uploading it on CoWIN, training of the vaccinators, preparedness for any adverse event following immunization (AEFI), cold chain management, security of session sites and vaccine storage sites. (ANI)