Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the health officials to prepare for a countrywide rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine – as and when it is ready – by taking cues from the poll officials who ensure that electronic voting machines reach every corner of the country before an election.
In addition, there are lessons to learn from the disaster management strategies on how quickly the force travels to an impacted area and joins the rescue operations.
“We should make use of experience of successful conduct of elections and disaster management in the country. In a similar manner, the vaccine delivery and administration systems should involve the participation of states and district level functionaries, civil society organisations, volunteers, citizens, and experts from all necessary domains,” the Prime Minister said after chairing a review meeting of the Covid-19 scenario including the preparedness for vaccine delivery.
The entire process of Covid-19 vaccination should have a strong IT backbone and the system should be designed in such a manner so as to have a lasting value to the healthcare system, he suggested.
With three Covid-19 vaccine trials ongoing and a fourth one about to start, the health ministry has begun a process to ready the downstream infrastructure and arrange for adequate manpower for a never-done-before exercise to vaccinate nearly 100 crore Indians.
The first priority would be doctors, healthcare workers, and other frontline staff, identified by the state governments.
National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) in consultation with state governments and all relevant stakeholders have prepared and presented a detailed blueprint of vaccine storage, distribution, and administration.
The Expert Group, in consultation with states, is working actively on prioritisation and distribution of the vaccine.
Modi further directed that keeping in view the geographical span and diversity of the country, the access to the vaccine should be ensured speedily.
NEGVAC also presented a detailed blueprint of vaccine storage, distribution, and administration to the Prime Minister during the review. However, its details have not been shared.
Two pan-India studies on the genome of SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19 virus) in India conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and Department of Bio-Technology suggested that the virus is genetically stable and there is no major mutation (tiny but crucial genetic changes) in the virus.
Asking the officials to ensure quick access to the vaccine keeping in mind India’s geographical spread, Modi said that every step in the logistics, delivery, and vaccine administration should be put in place rigorously.
The logistics arrangement would include advanced planning of cold storage chains, distribution network, monitoring mechanism, advance assessment, and preparation of ancillary equipment required, such as vials and syringes.
The Prime Minister reviewed the Covid-19 situation ahead of India crossing the 75 lakh-mark in the caseload even though the active number of Covid-19 cases fell below the 8 lakh mark for the first time in the last one and half months.
But West Bengal ahead of the Durga Puja festival is a worry. The eastern state has now come up to the third spot in the number of Covid-19 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours. India’s death toll stands at 1,12,161, out of which 895 were added in the last 24 hours.