Recipients of Covid-19 vaccines should be able to get their shots at the site nearest to the address they will provide, health department officials told Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) representatives at a meeting to review vaccination preparedness on Thursday.
The CMC has to hand over to the health department a complete list of all healthcare and frontline staff working with it by Saturday.
The Centre has prepared a digital platform, Co-Win, where one has to register to get a Covid vaccine. There will be no on-the-spot registration.
The Indian Medical Association will prepare a list of private practitioners in Calcutta and send it to the health department. The department will then register the private practitioners on the Co-Win platform, said a CMC official.
The CMC is also sending copies of a form to private practitioners, which they need to fill in and mail scanned copies to an ID mentioned in the document to get registered for vaccination.
An SMS will be sent to the registered mobile number of a recipient, mentioning the venue, date and time of the vaccination.
“We have been asked to register the names of recipients so they are allotted a vaccination centre closest to the address mentioned,” said a CMC doctor who attended Thursday’s meeting.
Sources said the CMC’s doctors and officials were told at the meeting that the health department as of now was planning to start the vaccination drive at teaching hospitals.
“This is a new vaccine and we do not know what could be the adverse reactions, which is why this drive will begin from hospitals. Anyone developing adverse reactions can be admitted to the hospital immediately,” the CMC doctor said.
The vaccination guidelines published by the Union health ministry say every recipient will have to wait for 30 minutes in an observation room after he or she is administered a vaccine.
A vaccination officer will observe the recipient. If there are no reactions, the person will be allowed to go after 30 minutes.
The CMC doctor said if a recipient is allotted the vaccination venue closest to the address mentioned, he or she can go back to the site and seek help at the earliest if some adverse reactions develop after the 30-minute window.
Another CMC doctor asked officials at the meeting if healthcare workers will have the option of not taking the vaccine. “The health department officials said that anyone can refuse to take the vaccine,” said a CMC official. “We were also told that there would be a gap of 28 days between the two doses.”
A dry run of vaccination will be conducted at three sites in Calcutta — NRS Medical College and Hospital, SSKM Hospital and CMC’s health clinic in ward 31 — on Friday.
