COVID-19 vaccination drive: Over 70 lakh healthcare workers registered on Co-WIN platform

COVID-19 vaccination drive: Over 51,000 public health facilities have been shortlisted for the vaccine rollout.

Moneycontrol News
January 01, 2021 / 01:05 PM IST

File image: A ground staff walks past a container kept at the Cargo Terminal 2 of Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, which according to the officials will be used as a COVID-19 vaccine handling and distribution center. (Image: Reuters/Anushree Fadnavis)

With India on the verge of granting emergency use authorisation to COVID-19 vaccines, the government has identified priority beneficiaries and over 70.33 lakh frontline healthcare workers have been registered on the Co-WIN platform. The government is planning to inoculate them in the first phase of the coronavirus vaccination drive.

To vaccinate the beneficiaries, the government has also identified over 2.30 lakh vaccinators, sources told CNBC-TV18. Additionally, over 51,000 public health facilities have been shortlisted for the vaccine rollout.

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The Health Ministry has asked all states and Union Territories to identify days when the vaccination drive would be held.

Dry run in all states, UTs on January 2

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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A dry run for COVID-19 vaccination will be conducted by all state and Union Territory administrations on January 2 to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify challenges, the Centre said.

The activity is proposed to be conducted in all state capitals in at least three session sites.

While some states will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrains/have poor logistical support, Maharashtra and Kerala are likely to schedule the dry run in major cities other than their capital, the Union Health Ministry said.

"The objective of the dry run for COVID-19 vaccine introduction is to assess operational feasibility in the use of Co-WIN application in the field environment, to test the linkages between planning and implementation and to identify the challenges and guideway forward prior to actual implementation. This is also expected to give confidence to programme managers at various levels," the ministry said.

The central government has also asked all states and UTs to ensure effective preparedness for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. They have been asked to ensure that the data of these beneficiaries is uploaded in Co-WIN. The data will also be available at the session site during the dry run.

The states and UTs shall prepare facilities and users to be created on the Co-WIN application, including uploading the data of Health Care Worker (HCW) beneficiaries, the ministry stated.

The Health Ministry developed the Co-WIN app for real-time monitoring of the coronavirus vaccination process.

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TAGS: #coronavirus #Covid-19 #Health #India #vaccine
first published: Jan 1, 2021 01:01 pm