KOLKATA: The state government on Tuesday made it clear that none can be vaccinated without being logged in to the Co-WIN application but allowed individual facilities more flexibility to map their recipients in advance. Despite Co-WIN glitches, the state has told health facilities — 207 vaccination sites in Bengal — that the vaccine-recipient list must be a random, portal-generated one and no “offline” recipients will be allowed from Wednesday.
To allow hospitals to plan, the state has made it clear that “Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday” shall be the preferable vaccination days. The state, however, has said that hospitals can also plan their four-day vaccination schedule, factoring in local issues and national holidays. The state has also made it clear that “provisional certificates are printed and issued to all people post vaccination”.
To meet targets — 100 to 120 — per vaccination sites, a new feature is being introduced in the form of a link — “Allot Beneficiaries” — where hospitals can add certain recipients. The state has advised that a list of 200 recipients “should be randomized against a session site” owing to the “dropout rate due to different reasons.” The state has advised facilities to start mapping this much in advance, and once the session site list is prepared, recipients will be reached out to in advance to avoid any SMS-linked communication slippage.
The session sites in Bengal districts must be “created” by noon the day before. The hospitals have been asked to take a “hard copy” of the vaccine recipient list which is generated by the Co-WIN system and “call each of them well in time for ensuring their attendance”. The district hospitals have also been asked to engage private facilities to increase session sites from Friday. The state has also made it clear that data of all health workers vaccinated in the offline mode must be manually uploaded on the Co-WIN platform after each session.
At Bidhannagar sub-divisional hospital, 69 people out of 180 took the shot till 7pm on Tuesday. At SSKM, where only 57 had turned up out of a targeted 120, officials said they had noticed the “Allot Beneficiaries” link on Co-WIN platform but said they were awaiting a final confirmation from the health department. Citing the reason behind the poor turnout, an official of MR Bangur Hospital, where 75 people out of 120 had turned up on Tuesday, said: “Some of the mobile numbers of recipients seem to have changed or out of service.”