BMC prepares blueprint for Covid-19 vaccine administration, distribution

As India may begin its COVID-19 vaccination drive as early as January 2021, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has prepared a vaccine administration, distribution and storage plan.

The BMC initially aims to train its staff for vaccination by January 7 and around eight BMC hospitals have started preparations for the same.

"Till now 80 thousand health workers have registered on COVID portal in Mumbai," the BMC informed on Monday.

In order to combat the COVID-19 surge, the Maharashtra government has imposed a night curfew between 11 pm to 6 am in the state in all municipal corporations from December 22, 2020, to January 5, 2021.

Meanwhile, the Pune district administration is also gearing up to vaccinate the front-line workers as soon as the vaccine is made available following government guidelines.According to data available with the district collector office, over 1.10 lakh front-line workers including doctors and Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers have been identified for vaccination in the first round of programme."I have held two different meetings with officials and we are ready with required infrastructure as well as facilities to go for the first round of vaccination as soon as the vaccine is made available'', said Rajesh Deshmukh, district collector of Pune.

The district administration has also identified cold storage facilities to store the vaccine in the district. So far 185 ILR (Ice Lined Refrigerator) and 157 deep freezers have been made ready to store the vaccine doses as it requires the minimum temperature to be maintained.

Maharashtra, which is among the worst affected states in the country, has 60,593 active COVID-19 cases, including 3,247 cases, as per the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.

As many as 1,789,95,8 people have been cured/discharged/ migrated so far including 6,053 cases. The death toll reached 48,801.

The Central government had earlier indicated that the COVID-19 vaccine in India may get approval by January 2021 and had asked the district administrations across the country to prepare for vaccination.There are six COVID-19 vaccines in different clinical trial stages in India. Besides, three vaccine candidates are in pre-clinical trial stages.