All outreach Covid vaccination camps, held away from a hospital or health clinic of civic bodies, must display the approval letter to conduct the camp and the Co-Win authenticated code number, the state health department said on Saturday.

The chief municipal health officer (CMHO) of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation will give the nod in Calcutta while the chief medical officer of health (CMOH) will give the approval in other districts, said a standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the department.

The organisers of all such camps — private hospitals, clubs, social organisations and corporate companies who arrange jab for their employees — must “obtain clearance from local police station”.

An official of a private hospital in Calcutta said outreach vaccination camps did not require permission from the CMC or the local police station before Saturday’s SOP.

The SOP detailing what Covid vaccination sites must do comes after the arrest of a fake civil servant who ran several fake jab camps using the CMC emblem.

Sources said the state government has launched an all out effort to ensure that people should not have any suspicion or confusion about the vaccination programme as it could be the only tool to deal with a fresh surge of Covid infections.

Some of the important points in the SOP that may help people planning to take vaccines tell a fake camp from a real one are:

⚫ The vaccination site must display approval letter from the CMOH (for districts) and CMHO of CMC, for Calcutta

⚫ Display the Co-Win authenticated code number. All such sites are given a unique number when they register themselves as a jab site

⚫ Must obtain clearance from local police station

⚫ The state health department will publish a list of all approved outreach camps on its website. Firhad Hakim, the chairperson of the CMC’s board of administrators, said, “We will publish a list of all vaccination centres of the CMC in newspapers.”

⚫ A telephone number should be publicised where people can lodge any complaint regarding the vaccination camp. This number should also be used for reporting any adverse events following immunisation.

The SOP also said a private hospital that wanted to open an outreach camp in a district where it had no presence must tie up with a local private hospital.

In Calcutta, the civic body’s vaccination centres would hang a notice outside the centre informing people that anyone who did not receive text a message after vaccination should inform the CMC. “We will log in to the Co-Win portal and see if the person’s vaccination certificate is there,” said a CMC official.

Officials of the CMC also said all off-site vaccination centres run by any organisation would now have to seek permission from the CMC. “Suppose an NGO has tied up with a private hospital and wants to organise an off-site vaccination. It must give us names and contacts of vaccinators, nodal person of the hospital, the cold chain point from where they would procure the vaccines, and name and contact details of the medical officer who would be present at the vaccination site,” said a CMC official.

The health department and the CMC organised medical camps at Kasba, Amherst Street and Sonarpur, the three places where fake camps were held. Two hundred and fifty seven people attended the camps, said a health department official.

State chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi on Saturday alerted the district magistrates that they should ensure no complaint came up regarding the vaccination programme.

“The vaccine vials should have a batch number and date of expiry. The veracity of the same can be done from eVin software,” said a district magistrate.

Another district magistrate quoted the chief secretary as saying: “Please alert all your health set up and all municipalities so that vaccination centres run by the government or private hospitals have been duly authorised and are run as per the protocols.”