An interminable wait for the COVID-19 pandemic to blow over might finally come to an end soon, with the government hopeful of rolling out a vaccine by January or February.
The Andhra Pradesh government is hopeful of beginning its vaccination drive in January, and the same has been conveyed to the High Court in an affidavit regarding a case about conducting panchayat elections in the State in February.
A couple of weeks ago, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy told the Legislative Assembly that the Union government had promised to provide one crore vaccines in the first phase. The vaccines will be given to seven lakh frontline workers, 3.6 lakh healthcare workers and 90 lakh citizens who are aged above 50, and others with comorbid conditions.
Mr. Jagan also told the Centre recently while visiting the national capital that the State machinery is fully prepared as per the Centre’s guidelines to distribute the COVID vaccine, and added that vital cold storage links are being established.
As the vaccine doses need to be stored within 2-80 C, the State will require adequate arrangements to store and transport them.
The State has over 465 cold chain storage units and 29 refrigerated vehicles to transport vaccines.
However, the exact number of vaccines that will be given in the first phase and the time of delivery to the State from Centre are yet to be known, he said.
Meanwhile, the government has been training healthcare workers including ASHA workers, ANMs and other staff, in handling the vaccination process.
The State government constituted task force committees at village, mandal and district levels to coordinate and ensure effective implementation. A State Steering Committee has also been constituted for preparation of the database of healthcare workers who would be vaccinated in the first phase.
Meanwhile, according to the Indian Council for Medical Research, at least five potential vaccine candidates are being developed in the country.
COVAXIN being developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and National Institute of Virology was in the third human clinical trial phase.
Other vaccine candidates, such as Covishield, being developed by the Serum Institute of India and ICMR, ZyCoV-D by Zydus Cadila, Sputnik by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited and Sputnik LLC and Biological E’s novel COVID-19 vaccine, were in different stages of trials.
Once a COVID vaccine is rolled out by the government, every individual has to register with a government portal before availing it. Upon registration, one will be informed about the availability of the vaccine, place of administration and time and the entire process of administration will be carried out akin to polling in elections.
In addition to the healthcare system, Ward and Village Secretariats and volunteers are going to play a key role in the vaccination process in the State.
Meanwhile, even after being vaccinated, the use of face masks, hand sanitisation, and maintaining social distancing will have to be continued, as per the Centre’s guidelines.
