COVID-19 vaccination programme: Health workers will be randomly selected

Maharashtra is all set to roll out the vaccination programme on January 16 Two of its centres R N Cooper hospital in Vileparle and District hospital Jalna will have a twoway communication live interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on DDay while other civic shortlisted centres will screen his speech in the vaccination areaOfficials check the vaccines stored in cold storage at the district public health strong room in Alibaug on Jan 13At 358 vaccination centres shortlisted across the state nearly 8 lakh front line workers have been registered for the vaccine programme So far 963 lakhs vials have been circulated across the state of which 139500 vials were supplied to Mumbai followed by 113000 vials supplied to Pune In phase one nearly 35000 frontline workers are expected to be vaccinated Interestingly on the day of vaccination only a small number of front line health care workers will be randomly selected and they will be informed so through the mobile application CoWinOn Wednesday night Raigad district received its vaccine lot for nearly 9500 said highly placed officials attached to the Public Health DepartmentA doctor attached to R N Cooper hospital said ldquoWe are excited with the fact that there will be a twoway communication with the Prime Minister However at this moment we have no clue about the actual number of shortlisted staffers who will take the vaccination We were just informed about this latest development and there are series of meetings going on to ensure that everything goes smoothlyrdquoAnother senior doctor attached to a BMC centre shortlisted for the vaccination programme said ldquoAll the civic shortlisted centres will have a screen and a oneway communication set up they can only hear the PM talk in the vaccine area Instead of two shifts only one shift will operate on DDay The doctor further added ldquoWe had a discussion with senior civic officials few days ago wherein it was stated that health care workers civic government and private names will be shortlisted with the Executive Health Official Parel who will submit the final list for uploading in the CoWin application We have learnt that only four to five frontline staffers doctors nurses ward boys and other paramedical staff from each hospital will be shortlisted instead of having the entire hospital staff vaccinated at one go Moreover we are yet to be told about the next dates of follow up vaccinations information of which will be circulated post the January 16 nationwide vaccine programmerdquoSpeaking about consent a doctor at a COVID Care Centre said ldquoWe have been told by Additional Municipal Commissioner Public Health Suresh Kakani that the entire programme is voluntary and that even if a staffer decides at the last moment not to take the vaccine he she has every right to do sordquo A doctor attached to Rajawadi hospital in Ghatkopar E too said ldquoWe have not been told anything specific about consent In case a front line staffer whose name is shortlisted gets the message about vaccination through the CoWin application his details will be taken at counter no 1 where all verification will be done Only after the details are uploaded which means the staff is giving consent for vaccination will heshe be sent to the next counterDr Sudhakar More District Health Officer Raigad district said As of now we have shortlistedndash Civil hospital Alibaug SubDivisional hospital Pen and Karjat MGM Kamothe and Yerala Medical college both under Panvel Municipal Corporation for the vaccination programme for January 16 So far we have 850 registered health care workers who have volunteered for the vaccination programme But on day one January 16 only 100 each will be vaccinated in the shortlisted hospitalsmedical collegeAsked about the remaining registered staff he said We are awaiting guidelines for the same and will do the needful as per the directives from superiors Talking about any untoward reaction due to the vaccine he said We have made all required arrangements and hence have shortlisted the hospitalmedical colleges for vaccination programme so that in case of any such situation our experts including anaesthetists there will provide the required medical carerdquoNidhi Choudhary Raigad district collector said ldquoWe have got the consent of health care workers working at various healthcare centres coming under state government civic corporation and even from private set ups Those who are registered and receive a mobile message will come to the designated centre where they will be given the vaccinerdquoWhen asked about the preparedness for an allergic reaction the collector said ldquoAll the participants for vaccine programme will be monitored for half an hour and we have been provided with all the equipment required to tackle any allergic symptoms Also we have been provided Adverse Event Following Immunisation AEFI guidelines by both the central and state government Also any allergic incident will be reported to both the central and state government through the portal and such cases will be closely monitoredrdquoIn case of a side effect observed after few days of vaccination the collector explained ldquoThese are health care workers and they will be attended at the centre where they were vaccinatedrdquo When asked about health care workers who are registered but could be left out on day one of the vaccination programme the collector said We will await the state government directives and will act as per the instruction We are fully prepared for January 16 As per the directives of the state government we have submitted the list of our front line staffers to the local municipal corporationrdquo said a source attached to Apollo hospital in CBD Belapur139500No of vaccine vials supplied to Mumbai