Here’s how Indian states are gearing up for mass vaccination against COVID-19

While the Indian government is yet to approve any COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, preparations are in full swing for the vaccine distribution, whenever it is made available.

Three companies, Pfizer, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech has already filed an application with the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use authorisation of their COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has developed India's indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, called Covaxin, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). Pune-based Serum Institute of India is seeking emergency use approval for the coronavirus vaccine that it is developing in collaboration with the University of Oxford and British drugmaker AstraZeneca. American firm Pfizer was the first to seek approval from the drug regulator for its vaccine developed in partnership with Germany's BioNTech. The Pfizer vaccine has been cleared by the UK, Bahrain and the US.

While the Indian government is yet to approve any of these vaccine for restricted emergency use, preparations are in full swing for the vaccine distribution, whenever it is made available.

Lat month, the Centre had asked states to constitute a steering committee at state, district and taluk levels for quick and effective distribution of COVID-19 vaccine once available. The plan is to provide the vaccine on priority basis for 30 crore people, which involves one crore healthcare workers, two crore frontline workers (police, security personnel, municipal workers and other essential workers) and 27 crore people above the age of 50 and below 50 with co-morbidities.

Let's take a glance at how some of the Indian states are gearing up for mass vaccination against COVID-19.

Telangana

As directed by the Centre, the Telangana government has constituted committees at the state, district and mandal levels for planning and execution of the Covid-19 vaccine distribution programme.

A Government Order dated December 11 said that the committees would undertake a structured review of all aspects related to preparedness and implementation of Covid-19 vaccination. These include ensuring active engagement of "line departments" for various activities related to the vaccine introduction as and when it is made available, among others.

When the vaccination starts, priority would be given to high risk groups as initially the supply would be limited and subsequently the other groups would be included, the G.O stated.

The Chief Secretary would be heading the state steering committee, while the State Task Force, District Task Force and Mandal Task Force would be chaired by the health secretary, the District Collector and the Mandal Parishad Development Officer (MPDO) respectively.

Goa

In Goa, the state government has constituted a nineteen-member block task force for the introduction of Covid-19 vaccine. The task force, headed by a sub-divisional magistrate, will monitor progress of a database of beneficiaries in the preparatory phase to be shared with the district authorities for upload for on Co-win software.

Developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Co-win is a software designed to monitor the Covid-19 vaccination programme across the country.

The block task force will also be responsible for ensuring training of human resources on Co-win software, monitoring progress of key activities such as micro planning, communication planning, cold chain and vaccine logistic planning. Besides, it will identify human resources across departments that could be deployed for vaccination sessions.

Kerala

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had last week announced that the Covid-19 vaccine will be provided free in the state. Mention may be made that Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh have also made a similar announcement.

The state has constituted multi-tier committees -- state steering committee, state task force, district task force and block task force to distribute the vaccine for free to everyone. It is also ramping up its cold chain infrastructure for storage and distribution of the vaccine. The process of uploading the data of health workers who will get the vaccine shots in the first phase is going on at the district level, government officials told media persons.

During a recent virtual national workshop on "training of trainers", immunisation officers from states and core Covid teams were told to be "all set" for the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme by 25 December. While govt discussed plan for Covid vaccine rollout, it did not confirm which vaccine will be administered first.

Addressing a press conference on the Covid-19 situation in the country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan last week said some of the Covid-19 vaccine candidates may get emergency use license in India in the next few weeks.