Odisha govt gets ready for vaccine with eye on early 2021 roll-out

BHUBANESWAR: The state government is getting its machinery ready for first-phase inoculation for Covid-19 vaccine and hoping that it will be available early next year. It is expected to be in two doses with a required storage temperature of 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius. A health department’s presentation before chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday revealed this.
A government statement quoted Naveen as saying, “While the vaccination drive may take more than a year after it starts, there should be people’s awareness on vaccine and the importance of continued Covid appropriate behaviour.”
Additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra said the health department’s assessment is based on the fact that two vaccines (Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech) are in phase III (last phase) trial while Russian vaccine Sputnik V is likely to enter Phase III trial in the country soon by Dr Reddys Lab, Hyderabad. Similarly, NVX-CoV 2323 by Serum Institute of India is under consideration for Phase III trial. Four other vaccines are also in different stages of trial in India while globally 58 vaccines are in clinical trial stages and 203 are in pre-clinical stages.
Most of the vaccines under trial are in two jabs and the storage temperature is between 2 and 8 degree Celsius, Mohapatra said.
The government will prepare its database to ensure that a beneficiary must complete two jabs of the same vaccine and not one dose each of two different vaccines in case multiple vaccines are available, the chances of which is very high. The vaccines are not interchangeable, said an officer. According to the recommendations of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC), apart from healthcare and anganwadi workers, municipal workers, state police, defence and paramilitary personnel will be the first priority group during the vaccination. For further priority groups, the state will wait for guidance from the Centre, Mohapatra said.
Mohapatra said the more than 2,900 vaccination sites will have separate entry and exit points to the extent possible to avoid criss-cross movement of beneficiaries. Each site will have three separate areas for waiting, vaccination and observation. Enough physical distance will be maintained between seats in the waiting rooms.
A five-member team will be involved in vaccination at each site for maximum 200 beneficiaries. The vaccinator will be a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, ANM or health worker trained in vaccine administration, a government source said. A policeman, home guard, NCC or NSS volunteer will work as vaccination officer 1 whose job will be to check registration status of the beneficiary. Vaccination officer 2 will be health/ICDS staff member. Their job will be to authenticate / verify documents. The vaccination officers 3 and 4 will be support staff for crowd management.
The mapping of vaccinators and session sites are complete.
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