Here’s what you need to know about India’s largest vaccine campaign and how to register as a beneficiary.
Most states began with the dry run for Covid-19 vaccination. Soon, a portion of the populace will get their first shot. Dose planning at vaccine sites, transportation requirements, and other plans are now at full swing. DCGI has licenced Oxford’s COVID-19 vaccine Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for restricted emergency use.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan recently declared that vaccination is free for priority category beneficiaries in all states in the first step. “I suggest to people not to be misguided by COVID-19 vaccine protection and effectiveness rumours. Before authorising a vaccine, we would not compromise on any procedure,” Vardhan said, stressing that vaccine reluctance was a concern even when the country began immunisation, but “we must note its performance.”
Here’s what you need to talk about India’s largest vaccination campaign and how to enrol as beneficiary:
Who gets the vaccine first?
Health workers
According to the National Advisory Committee on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) guidelines, one crore health staff working for both government and private hospitals will be inoculated first.
Furthermore, the priority category was split into sub-categories as frontline personnel, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) workers, nurses and managers, paramedics, police officers, support staff and medical students.
All data are obtained from health care facilities and is being uploaded to Co-WIN, the digitised framework used to efficiently carry out and scale up the Covid Vaccine Delivery System mechanism.
Frontline staff
Two crore frontline employees employed with central and state police, security forces, civil defence agency, emergency management, home guard, jail personnel, civic workers, revenue officers working with Covid-19 monitoring and other similar operations.
Staff affiliated with state government and security ministries would also get vaccine in the first step
Women over 50 years old
This group can be further split into people over age group pf 60 years and people over 50 years with co-morbidities. The new assembly roll, or Lok Sabha polls, will be used as a guide to classify immunisation population.
Age will be determined based on the cut-off date of 1 January 2021, and those born on or before 1 January 1971 will fall into this range.
Areas with heavy Covid-19 infections
States and UTs at their discretion will roll out priority vaccine phasing in high-infection regional areas.
Population left
Population below 50 years of age with related comorbidities depending on the evolving pandemic condition such as diabetes, stroke, asthma, respiratory disorders, and eventually the remaining population based on disease epidemiology and provision of vaccinations.
How to file for session vaccination
Popular service centres must be used for general public self-registration and identification certification. Self-registration module will be available in later development stages.
Individuals should pick authentication from the following methods
Biometric: For this person demographic data from name to permanent address in Aadhaar card, the platform would auto-fill.
OTP Authentication: an Aadhaar card will be sent to the registered mobile number. If OTP authentication is effective, individual demographic information as per the Aadhaar would auto-populate.
Demographic authentication: An person can manually enter all demographic data, i.e. Name, DoB, gender, pick Authentication Demo. A green tick emerges indicating the same.
An person involved in registering must have photo identification from one of the following:
·Card Aadhaar;
· License driving;
· Health Insurance Smart Card issued by Ministry of Labor;
MNREGA Employment Card.
· Official MP/MLA/MLC identification cards;
· Card PAN;
· Bank/Postal Passbook issued;
· Passporting;
Pension Text.
· Service Identification Card issued by Central/State Govt./PSUs/Public Limited Companies;
· RGI card issued under NPR;
·Voting ID
Picture identity may either be submitted to the Co-WIN scheme (in PDF, JPG or PNG file formats) or pulled from the individual Digi Locker account.
When licenced, vaccine date and time will be assigned. There will be no spot registration service and only pre-registered beneficiaries will continue with vaccination.
District Collector (DC)/District Magistrate (DM) with District Immunization Officer assistance will connect meetings, vaccinators, supervisors and beneficiaries to determine the dates and time for the vaccine. Respective district administration will accept session and site distribution recipients. Co-WIN requires tracking and accountability processes.
How sessions were planned
An optimal session location should have three rooms/areas:
- Wait room/area;
- Vaccination room;
- Observatory Room
Why the vaccine team was arranged
A 5-member team with specified roles manages each session:
Vaccination Officer-1: Pre-check of beneficiary status and photo ID verification before accessing the waiting room/area. Vaccination Officer-1 can better control queues/crowds
Vaccination officer 2: authentication/check paper in the Co-WIN method (Health/ICDS/other government agencies, e.g. election model)
Vaccinator cop: vaccine officer (Doctors (MBBS/BDS/AYUSH), staff nurse, pharmacist, ANM, LHV).
Vaccination officer 3 and 4: traffic control, 30-minute waiting, tracking of any AEFI signs, directing non-registered recipients
Vaccination at public and private health facilities where a medical officer or doctor is available is known as a fixed session location. Schools and community centres may be locations for outreach sessions, with special mobility teams for rural regions or migratory groups and international border areas.
All COVID-19 sessions will be held from 9am to 5pm.