India gears up for D-Day of Covid-19 vaccination

Senior health expert and ICMR advisor, Dr Suneela Garg, while speaking to ETV Bharat said that the process of transportation of the vaccine would be a tough task for the government as it needs to be maintained a particular temperature. She further mentioned that the second nationwide dry run will further fine-tune the entire vaccination process.

New Delhi:India has geared up for D-Day of Covid-19 vaccination early next week. With the entire government machinery remain busy in fine-tuning all the components required to start the mammoth vaccination process, ETV Bharat tried to look into the critical and very important points of the vaccination process.

"It's important to understand the whole supply chain of the vaccination process. As we are aware that we have got two vaccines (COVISHIELD and COVAXIN) being manufactured in Pune and Hyderabad, we have set all the system in line starting from transporting the vaccine from manufacturing site to the vaccination booth," said Dr Suneela Garg, senior health expert and advisor, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

She said that the vaccine will be transported from manufacturing sites to the airport through insulated vans.

"From there they will be transported to four regional vaccine store including Karnal (for North), Mumbai (West), Chennai (South) and Kolkata (East). And from these four primary vaccine depot, it will go to the 37 state vaccine stores spread across India," said Dr Garg.

From 37 stores, the vaccines will be taken to 29,000 cold chain points across India. "From cold chains, the vaccines will be taken by vaccine carriers to different vaccination booths," said Dr Garg. India aims to vaccinate 30 crore people in the first phase which is likely to take a time duration of six months.

"The vaccination also depends on the availability of vaccines by the manufacturers," added Dr Garg. She said that the cold chains will be having a deep freezer, walk-in cooler so that the vaccines can be stored at 2-8°Centigrade. Both the vaccines (COVISHIELD and COVAXIN) can be stored at a minimum of 2-8°Centigrade.

"A day before the vaccination starts, the vaccine can be transported to its destination," said Dr Garg.

"We have to keep monitoring the cold chain throughout the day because once we vaccinate a particular number of people with one dose in a day, we have to keep the remaining vaccines preserved," said Dr Garg.

The vaccination drive will begin across the country initially to inoculate three crore health care and frontline workers. The government has also uploaded all data of the recipients in the Co-WIN app.

"Co-WIN is a digital app, and it is the focal point for the entire vaccination process," said Dr Garg.

She further mentioned that the second nationwide dry run will further fine-tune the entire vaccination process.

"We had identified a few issues during the previous dry run for Covid-19 vaccination. All these will be sorted out in the send dry run on Friday," said Dr Garg.