Mumbai
Amid rising shortage and constraints in its procurement, the Centre has again reminded the states that it is their responsibility to procure vaccine doses other than GoI channel, opened in the Liberalised Phase-III Strategy of Vaccination. The Centre has asked states to constitute a dedicated team comprising 2 or 3 senior officers to coordinate with vaccine manufacturers on a daily basis and secure their supplies promptly. The team should also be tasked with coordination with private hospitals to facilitate their procurement thereby maintaining the momentum of the overall vaccination exercise in the state.
Responding to complaints made by states with regard to functioning of CoWin app, the Centre said it is also being modified to better reflect the changing needs of the vaccination exercise. The states can download a Second Dose Due Report to better plan the completion of vaccination of the target groups.
The District Immunisation Officer (DIO) and COVID Vaccination Centre (CVC) Manager can increase the session capacity according to demand (capped at 100) and can visualise the target group in their upcoming sessions. Beneficiaries without relevant photo IDs like senior citizens at old-age homes, etc, can be registered. The DIOs and CVC Managers can also download Vaccine Utilisation Report (VUR).
Further, the Centre has said CoWin App will shortly provide the flexibility and feature for reserving slots for second dose and it will be customised to the extent possible and will also open Application Programming Interface (API). The Centre stressed the need for a campaign for informing people they should use only one mobile number for both doses for its reflection in their certificate. The Centre has urged states to avoid use of restrictive criteria to uphold the mantra of CoWIN providing vaccination to anyone, anywhere and at any time.
Further, the Centre has urged states to minimise vaccine wastage. “While the overall levels have considerably reduced, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan pointed out that states still needed to substantially reduce the wastage. It was suggested states/UTs must retrain and reorient vaccinators to ensure judicious usage of the vaccines. All wastage more than the national average hereafter is to be adjusted from the subsequent allocations to that state/UT,’’ said the ministry.
70% of central vaccines to be reserved for second dose
The Centre on Tuesday told the states to reserve at least 70% of the Covid vaccines supplied by it for the second dose vaccination on priority and remaining 30% for the first dose to 45+. States given liberty to enhance this to as much as 100%.
The states were assured to convey on Friday (May 14) the next central allocation of the vaccine doses for the period May 15-31 to enable them to plan the vaccination drive for the next fortnight more effectively. They were told to launch an awareness campaign on the importance of complete vaccination with two doses. —Our Bureau inputs
US for J&J’s India production
The US is looking at joint production of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine in India and ways to help manufacturers like the SII to boost production, Daniel B Smith, the Charge D'Affaires of the US embassy, said on Tuesday. Smith said the efficacy of AstraZeneca’s vaccine manufactured at a production facility in Baltimore is not yet clear and the FDA has not yet certified the doses are available for anyone’s use or for export.
