COVID-19 Vaccination Drive: Delhi Begins Training 3,500 Healthcare Workers

New Delhi: Preparations for one of the largest vaccination drive ever, have begun in the national capital with the task of training health care workers for COVID vaccination drive. Around 3,500 healthcare workers are being trained for the vaccine rollout. According to the Delhi government, 1.8 lakh to 2.25 lakh health care workers will be vaccinated in the first phase of the vaccination drive, for which 609 cold chain points have been identified in all the top hospitals and Mohalla clinics across the city.

Also Read: Third Wave Of COVID-19 In Delhi Now Under Control: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal

The training session, which began on Monday, is being conducted at a centre run by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) of Delhi government. Speaking to NDTV about the training, Dr Suneela Garg, public health expert and advisor to the ICMR, who is also among the mentors at the training programme said,

The trainees, who include MBBS, BDS, AYUSH doctors, pharmacist , Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and medical interns, are being trained regarding storage and transportation of the vaccine. The training is being done in a cascade model or top-down manner.

Talking about the implementation part, Dr Garg who is currently Director Professor & Head of Community at Medicine Maulana Azad Medical College added,

In Delhi the vaccines will be first received at the Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital from where it will be transported to Delhi’s 11 districts. The trainees are also being told how to handle ‘Co-WIN’ software that will contain data of the beneficiaries.

Also Read: COVID-19: Entire Delhi Can Be Vaccinated In A Month, Says State Immunisation Officer

Delhi’s state immunisation officer and immunisation technical support unit of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have already received training from the Centre and they have now started the state-level training in Delhi.

Further explaining the ideal scenario of vaccinating people in vaccination booth, Ms Garg added,

At the vaccination booth, there will be three rooms – one each for waiting, vaccination and observation. While Vaccination officer-1 will be tasked with checking registration status of beneficiaries, Vaccination officer-2 will verify documents. Whereas, Vaccination officer-3 and 4 will be responsible for crowd management, monitoring of adverse events, and guiding non-registered beneficiaries.

She further added that only 100 people will be vaccinated at a particular booth in a day and each person who gets the vaccine will be mandatorily kept under observation for 30 minutes to check for adverse effects and those who develop severe after effects will be shifted to a medical facility.

Highlighting the way medical officers will be ensuring the efficient biomedical waste management, Ms Garg said that the medical officers will be trained properly for syringe disposal.

Currently, there are three vaccine candidates — Pfizer, Serum Institute of India-Oxford’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin for emergency use authorisation in the country.

On coronavirus number front, national capital reported 939 fresh COVID-19 cases on Tuesday with over 82,000 tests conducted. The state’s positivity rate slipped to 1.14 per cent, as per the authorities. This is the second consecutive day when the daily cases count has remained below the 1,000-mark.

As per the bulletin, the total number of patients in the city who have defeated the disease, inched closer to 600,000 with 1,434 new recoveries taking the total number of recovered cased to 599,683.

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign is an extension of the five-year-old Banega Swachh India initiative helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. It aims to spread awareness about critical health issues facing the country. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign highlights the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children to prevent maternal and child mortality, fight malnutrition, stunting, wasting, anaemia and disease prevention through vaccines. Importance of programmes like Public Distribution System (PDS), Mid-day Meal Scheme, POSHAN Abhiyan and the role of Aganwadis and ASHA workers are also covered. Only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and become a Swasth or healthy India. The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene.