Vaccination suspended for healthcare staff training

The vaccination process for the public has been put on hold for two days, starting Thursday, to train healthcare staff on new technicalities in the process, officials of the health department said

The vaccination process for the public has been put on hold for two days, starting Thursday, to train healthcare staff on new technicalities in the process, officials of the health department said. With a rapid surge in cases, as Gurugram reported 5,042 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, officials said that the staff strength has also dwindled with over a 100 workers testing positive last week and an increase in workload for contact tracing in large outbreak regions.

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The staff are being trained to upload details of vaccinations, including the vaccine name and dose wastage, on the CoWIN portal, said officials.

Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer, said, “For stage three of vaccination that is scheduled to start from May 1, there are certain technical changes in the CoWIN portal, which need to be conveyed to doctors, vaccinators, and other healthcare workers, due to which we have halted the vaccination process for two days. For the next stage, hospitals will have to update details, such as the number of vaccines, wastage, name of the vaccine, on the portals on their own. In these two days (Thursday and Friday), healthcare staff from both private and government hospitals are being trained on the technicalities of handling the data on the portal.”

Officials said that the district, at present, has a stock of around 10,000 doses of vaccines for use at government vaccination sites, ahead of the next phase, for which private hospitals have been directed to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers. Officials said that the health department will not be supplying it to them.

Private hospitals have also been given time till 5pm on Friday, to inform the health department about the number of vaccine doses left with them and return the same to the health department.

“All vaccinations that will be done from May 1 in private hospitals will be done based on vaccines that they are able to procure directly from the manufacturers. We have given them time till Friday evening to inform us about stock left with them, which they will have to return. Vaccination will continue at government centres, but for private centres, slots will be visible on CoWIN application, based on their stock availability,” said Singh.

According to Singh, the vaccination will continue to be free of cost for beneficiaries above the age of 45 years, while government directives are awaited on the charges for beneficiaries aged 18 to 44.

Officials also said that another reason for suspending vaccinations for two days is the lack of healthcare staff availability, as testing has been increased in large outbreak areas along with contact tracing.

“With the increase in cases, our healthcare staff is also testing positive, which demoralises them. With limited healthcare workers, it is difficult to manage vaccination, contact tracing and training process. So, with staff who are still working, we are focusing on training for the next stage of vaccination and contact tracing with rapid testing,” said a senior health official, requesting anonymity.

Virendra Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurugram, said, “The portal has certain changes with respect to the price of the vaccines and allotment of slots that need to be updated by private hospitals based on the stock of vaccine that they are able to procure. These two days, those updates are being done, after which vaccination will start in the district again.”

However, the vaccination process was only stopped for the public, with 50 healthcare workers and frontline workers receiving the jabs at government session sites, while 1,458 were vaccinated at private facilities.