2,500 staff trained for Mumbai civic body’s vaccination drive

Each vaccine administration team will consist of five people, including the vaccinator, support staff and security personnel

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to execute the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination. It has trained a group of 2,500 individuals at civic hospitals to assist with the administration of the vaccine. These staffers have also been trained to deal with various scenarios that may occur during the vaccination drive.

A healthcare worker takes the swab sample of a passenger at Bandra terminus on Sunday. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

Each vaccine administration team will consist of five people, including the vaccinator, support staff and security personnel. There will be 500 teams in total, and each of them will assist one doctor.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health), said, “While the preliminary training for the vaccination drive is over, a detailed training is still ongoing. The detailed training includes identifying people [who need to be administrated the dose on priority basis], handling Covid-19 mobile application designed for distribution and scheduling of vaccines and [ensuring] precautions to be taken during vaccination. By December 31, we want to complete all our preparations.”

The BMC has already devised a vaccine distribution strategy for around 40% population in the city that has been tagged as ‘vulnerable’. Around 1.25 lakh healthcare workers will get the Covid-19 shots in the first phase of vaccination, followed by frontline workers such as police force and conservancy workers in the second phase. In the third phase, citizens above the age of 50 and those suffering from comorbidities will be vaccinated.

Kakani said initially there will be eight civic hospitals (King Edward Memorial Hospital, BYL Nair Hospital, Cooper hospital, Sion hospital, Bhabha hospitals at Kurla and Bandra, Rajawadi Hospital and the Jogeshwari trauma hospital) that will be utilised for administering the vaccine to the healthcare workers in 15 days after the vaccine arrives. The second dose will be administered in 15 days after a buffer of 28 days.

BMC is in the process of procuring deep freezers and has set up a central vaccine storage facility at Kanjurmarg.