Health officials undergo Co-WIN system training for vaccine management

From tracking beneficiaries for Covid-19 vaccine to monitoring supply and storage of it on a real-time basis, the Gurugram health department officials are getting

From tracking beneficiaries for Covid-19 vaccine to monitoring supply and storage of it on a real-time basis, the Gurugram health department officials are getting trained in Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) system — a digital platform which will be a repository of information for the management of Covid-19 vaccination in the coming months. Initially, officials said, Covid-19 vaccine will be provided only to the beneficiaries registered by the authorities on Co-WIN, with a self-registration option likely to be added at a later stage.

HT Image

For this, the district health department officials, who have been trained by the state in the last two days on Covid-19 vaccine guidelines, will impart training on December 17 to their medical officers, representatives of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and other health staff on using Co-WIN.

“Everything related to Covid-19 vaccine is linked with Co-WIN platform,” said Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer, who attended the two-day state-level training on Covid-19 vaccination that concluded on Tuesday. “Co-WIN is the extension of the existing electronic Vaccine Network (eVIN), which is a real-time platform to track the supply and storage of vaccines used in routine immunisation programme,” he said.

Functions and operations

Co-WIN keeps a record of everything — from inventory management (supply and storage) of vaccines, monitoring of temperature at the cold chain system, registration of beneficiaries, date and time of vaccination and final certificate on completing the vaccination.

“At the district level, it will have all the details of the session sites along with the list of beneficiaries who will be inoculated at a particular site at a particular time,” said Singh.

According to the guidelines, Covid-19 vaccine will be provided only to beneficiaries registered on Co-WIN. The process has already started with the registration of healthcare workers in the district. More than 36,000 vaccine beneficiaries for the first phase are already registered on the Co-WIN platform. The process of registering frontline workers, part of the priority group, is yet to be started.

According to Singh, with the help of Co-WIN, they will club together at least 100 beneficiaries per session site for inoculation. “At present, we have the list of healthcare workers of private hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and diagnostic labs. Through the application, 100 beneficiaries will be allocated one designated session site, along with the date and time for vaccination,” said Singh.

Likewise, for the second dosage of Covid-19 vaccine, the portal will generate the date and time. “And, once the vaccination has been completed, it will also generate a certificate which people can collect at Common Service Centre (CSC),” said Singh.

The digital platform will have the list of vaccinating officers and supervisors who will be administering the vaccine. “Through the application, vaccinating officers will verify the registered beneficiary at the session site. Only after authentication, people will be inoculated,” said Singh.

The ID proofs should correspond to the details provided while registering on the Co-WIN platform.

The vaccination team at session sites will consist of five members. A vaccinating officer, who will be authorized to give vaccine; vaccinating officer 1 (police personnel, civil defence) who will do the registration; vaccinator officer 2, who will verify the identification documents; vaccinator officers 3 and 4, who will be responsible for crowd management.

Self-registration on Co-WIN

The portal will also have a self-registration link for others who are currently not covered under prioritised population. The self-registration, however, will be available in the later phases of implementation, according to Covid-19 guidelines. Citizens will have to provide basic details like name, date of birth, permanent and current address, details of co-morbidities, along with an ID proof.

Planning ahead

The district health department will also reach out to the deputy commissioner regarding the Co-WIN platform and other aspects of vaccination on December 18 as a part of the task force meeting, to discuss issues of manpower, identification of session sites, such as community centres, schools and banquet halls, besides the existing 1,275 sites used for routine immunisation.

“MCG will be roped in to provide the list of frontline workers who will have to be registered on the Co-WIN platform. They will be deployed as vaccinating officers, who will be assisting in multiple stages of vaccination from verification of documents to keeping a tab on adverse events following immunisation,” said Dr Virender Yadav.