The dry run for the COVID-19 vaccination began on Saturday in three centres across the city – Kamakshipalya PHC (primary health centre), Vidyapeetha PHC and Uttarahalli PHC.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has already identified 1.68 lakh health care workers, who will be the first to be vaccinated. The details of these workers from over 4,594 institutions, including PHCs, medical colleges and hospitals, private clinics, etc., have already been uploaded on the portal managed by the centre, said BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad.
Mr. Prasad said that beneficiaries will receive messages on the centre they will have to go for the vaccination. Healthcare workers will key in details mentioned in the SMS on the portal, which will generate an OTP that will have to be entered.
The beneficiary will then be sent to the waiting room, and later to the vaccination room when their turn comes. After vaccination, they will be sent to the observation room, where they will be monitored for 30 minutes. “The whole process will take around two hours,” he said.
BBMP Special Commissioner (Health) Rajendra Cholan told The Hindu that as per the Centre’s guidelines, there should be one vaccinator for every 100 beneficiaries. “We have already identified 1,550 vaccinators and an additional 10% as reserve. The details of these vaccinators have also been uploaded on the Co-WIN portal,” he said.
Three rooms
Since the vaccination sites have to have three rooms - waiting, vaccination and observation rooms - the BBMP is in the process of identifying schools that may be converted to vaccination sites. “We have 144 PHCs that will be converted to vaccination sites, as they have the requisite infrastructure,” he added.
Mr. Prasad said that the identification of schools would be completed in a couple of days. An important criteria for identifying the schools is the proximity to cold chain and vaccine storage facilities, Mr. Cholan added.
