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To make vaccination accessible to the elderly (above 60) with no vaccination or first dose of vaccination and those who are below 60 years with disability, the Centre on Friday issued guidelines to bring vaccination services closer to the community and nearer to their homes.
As per the proposed guidelines for “Near to Home Covid Vaccination Centres” (NHCVC), sessions can be conducted in non-health facility-based settings and nearer to home.
The list of elderly and differently-abled citizens will have to be compiled, based on which vaccination sessions can be organised. It is to be noted that the vaccination for all other age groups will continue at the existing Covid vaccination centre (CVCs).
Planning, implementation
NHCVC will be linked to an existing CVC; the person in-charge of the CVC will be responsible of providing the vaccine, logistics and human resources.
“District Task Force (DTF)/Urban Task Force (UTF) will be responsible for planning and implementing vaccination at the NHCVC, with flexibility to adjust the proposed plan as per the local circumstances. Once identified and verified for meeting the CVC criteria, all such sites will be registered on the CoWIN portal as NHCVC,” said the guidelines.
Each team at NHCVC will have five members — team leader (necessarily a doctor), vaccinator, vaccination officer 1 for Co-WIN registration and/or verification of beneficiary, and vaccination officer-2 and 3 for crowd control, assistance to vaccinator, ensuring 30 minutes observation of beneficiaries following vaccination for any adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) and any other support.
Exercising caution
As per the fresh guidelines, at a given session, only one type of vaccine will be provided to avoid mixing of vaccine types between the first and second dose of a beneficiary. “In case there are target beneficiaries who have a requirement of a different vaccine as second dose (possibility of some elderly who has already received the first dose), different sessions/days could be dedicated in such cases,” the advisory said.
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