Covid-19 vaccination at workplaces in India begins today: All you need to know
The Covid-19 vaccinations at private workplaces will be a paid service, and the price is capped at ₹250 per dose while sessions at government offices organised by district health authorities will be free of cost.
Covid-19 vaccination for all those eligible in the current phase of the immunisation drive will begin at their workplaces from Sunday, the government announced earlier this week with the aim to rapidly cover eligible beneficiaries amid the second wave of infections across the country.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare wrote to the states to make arrangements for the facility at both private and government offices provided there is an availability of at least 100 eligible and willing beneficiaries. The states were advised to initiate due consultations with private and public sector employers and management to prepare for launch of workplace vaccination, the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
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The Covid-19 vaccinations at private workplaces will be a paid service, and the price is capped at ₹250 per dose while sessions at government offices organised by district health authorities will be free of cost.
The government said that the decision was taken as a substantial proportion of population aged between 45-59 years (in some cases up to 65 years) are in the organised sector of the economy. They are involved in formal occupation in offices (government and private), in manufacturing and services etc., the government said.
The move comes at a time when India is reporting a daily surge of nearly 150,000 cases. The country’s total infection tally has soared past 13.2 million while active cases stand at 1,046,631, which is 7.93% of the total cases.
While some states have flagged a "shortage" of vaccine doses, the Centre has maintained that a sufficient quantity of the jabs have been allocated to all the states and that many of them have been unable to inoculate all eligible beneficiaries.
Here’s everything you need to know about Covid-19 vaccination at offices
--All ‘Work Place vaccination centres’ need to be registered in the CoWin portal as government or private Covid Vaccination Centre (CVC) at Work Place.
--Only employees of that particular office aged 45 years or more will be eligible for vaccination at the workplace, no outsiders including eligible family members will be allowed for vaccination at ‘CVC at Work Place’.
--Every CVC in government workplace will be tagged to an existing and nearest CVC in the government medical facility, and likewise, every CVC in private workplace will be tagged to an existing and nearest CVC in the private medical facility. The designated government and private CVC will be responsible for deployment of vaccination team at ‘Work Place CVCs’.
--One fully trained vaccination team will be assigned to vaccinate 100 beneficiaries at Work Place CVC. Additional teams shall be deployed in case work load is more than 100 beneficiaries and if sufficient space for vaccination is available. The management of the office will be responsible for arranging adequate rooms / space for Covid-19 inoculation.
--Only one type of vaccine will be provided at these sessions to avoid mixing of vaccine types in the first and second dose of a beneficiary, the health ministry said.
--Beneficiaries who have already received one dose of a vaccine different from the one being administered at the Work Place CVC shall not be vaccinated at the session in the Work Place CVC. They must get the second dose of the same vaccine at an appropriate Covid vaccination centre. However, those who have received same vaccine as first dose may be provided second dose at the Work Place CVC.
--The full list of beneficiaries, as available in CoWin, will be visible to all verifiers and vaccinators, an option of on-the-spot registration will also be available.
--Verification will be done by Verifier (Vaccination Officer-1) preferably using Aadhaar. Apart from Aadhar, other IDs approved by the MoHFW are EPIC, passport, driving license, PAN card, smart card issued by RGI under NPR, and pension document with photograph.
