KOLKATA: A total of 1,800 healthcare workers across 23 districts—they are among the first batch of beneficiaries lined up to receive the
Covid-19 vaccine—got a “dummy” taste of the immunisation programme slated for next week as they participated in the second drill held at state-run hospitals and health centres on Friday.
In Kolkata, the exercise was conducted at five government teaching hospitals and a primary health centre at Maniktala, where 150 people—25 at each centre—participated in the
dry run that lasted around three hours. “We are following certain set rules for the beneficiaries. We are starting with screening them at the entry point. Then, we checked their registration text message and photo ID proof before sending them to a waiting area. As their turn came, each was sent into the
vaccination booth, where the personnel mimicked the act of administering the
vaccine on the dummy beneficiaries. After that, they were sent to a separate hall, where they were told to wait for 30 minutes for observation before allowed to leave,” said a senior doctor at
SSKM Hospital who was part of the team conducting the dry run held on the first floor of the academic building auditorium. “Our plan is to finish the entire process in 45 minutes to an hour for each beneficiary.”
SSKM Hospital that will lead the inaugural vaccination programme with 9,000 beneficiaries—the highest number in the state—has set up four vaccination booths on the premises. They have assigned eight vaccinator officers to administer the injections and 30-odd vaccination officers for verifying registration status of the beneficiaries and managing the queues. A host of security personnel and policemen have also been roped in to control crowd and sanitize the premises. Four booths will be set up at SSKM to vaccinate healthcare workers from the hospital and Kolkata Police Hospital. Sambhunath Pundit Hospital will house two booths where the vaccine will be administered on healthcare workers and staff from its own facility, and that from Bangur Institute of Neurosciences, Ramrikdas Haralalka Hospital and PG Polyclinic.
“Our target is to vaccinate at least 600 people a day at the six booths at SSKM and Sambhunath Pundit Hospital, which is SSKM’s annexe unit. That way, we can complete the first dose in the first phase in 15 days. We will, however, keep a few additional days in reserve for those who may fail to appear on the scheduled day,” said an official at SSKM Hospital.
At the other four medical colleges in the city—NRS, MCH, CNMC and RG Kar—similar set-ups were created with senior hospital officials overseeing the process as laid down by the Union health ministry. The process, which was followed on Friday for dry run and will be carried out during the rollout, included registering beneficiaries for the dry run, checking text messages sent to them with registration numbers, sanitizing beneficiaries’ hands, screening their temperature ensuring they had masks on, seating them in waiting rooms before sending them one by one to the vaccination rooms. After immunization, the dummy beneficiaries were asked to wait in a separate observation room for 30 minutes in case any adverse side-effects showed up in any. Once the 30-minute period got over, a doctor checked the beneficiaries for their vitals before allowing them to leave. After each vaccination, every beneficiary’s data was immediately uploaded in the Co-WIN system. Within 10 minutes, each person received messages that they had been vaccinated, along with the date and time for the mandatory second dose.
Senior health officials from Swasthya Bhavan visited the vaccinations centres to take a note of the staff’s preparedness as well as electric and internet connections. “The dry run at the centres we visited went off more or less smooth. We just suggested the staff to call the beneficiaries into smaller time slots between 9am and 5pm to avoid crowding and to maintain social distancing,” said a health department official visiting Kolkata hospitals.