To make certain the smooth distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to involve civic-run schools and gymkhanas as Covid-19 vaccine centres to provide greater accessibility to the public.
An estimated one particular crore frontline wellness workers will obtain the very first dose of COVID-19 vaccine anytime it becomes obtainable, with about 92 per cent of government hospitals and 55 per cent of private hospitals across all states and UTs giving information identifying the workers.
“We were asked to do planning and mapping of vaccination sessions where healthcare workers will be vaccinated during the 1st phase and mapping human resources across departments that could be deployed for vaccination sessions for verification of beneficiaries, crowd management, and overall coordination,” mentioned an official.
Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC mentioned they require to provide maximum accessibility to the public to fasten the method. So, along with health-related colleges, peripheral hospitals, dispensaries, the civic body has plans to involve about 400 schools and gymkhanas that are below them.
“At first, we will start the vaccine centres at tertiary and secondary care centres. But we will also keep the schools and gymkhanas which are under me ready if we need more centres,” he mentioned. “We are already using schools and gymkhanas as Covid Care Centres (CCC) so there won’t be a problem in converting these into vaccine centres,” added Kakani.
As instructed by the union wellness ministry, the civic body is maintaining the blueprint prepared for the preparation of vaccine distribution. The civic body has been holding typical meetings with the senior wellness officers which includes the deans of the health-related colleges.
In Mumbai, about 1.25 lakh public and private health-related staffers will be offered with the very first dosage of the vaccine. The civic body has currently registered their telephone and e-mail IDs. Once they obtain the vials, every single beneficiary will be informed via SMS about the nearby place and time of the vaccine. Once removed from the cold storage, a vial can sustain for about 10 hours.
“At present, we will provide training to the workers from the department of immunisation who will work as trainers and trainee others in future. But we will recruit other workers for the mass immunisation process,” mentioned an official from the wellness division.
The government has demarcated 4 categories which involve about 1 crore healthcare experts which includes physicians, MBBS students, nurses and ASHA workers and so on, about two crore frontline workers which includes municipal corporation workers, personnel of the police and armed forces, about 26 crore individuals aged above 50 and a particular category of these under 50 with co-morbidities and requiring specialised care.
In the meantime, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has cautioned about the hype about the vaccines which are nevertheless undergoing clinical trials.
“The safety of the vaccine has to be tested widely with a large number of volunteers across the globe with different categories like age groups, sex, race, continents, and climate conditions. Any vaccine which is not tested fully with such 3rd stage clinical trials is not safe,” the statement issued by Dr. Avinash Bhondwe, president IMA, Maharashtra stated.