Who will get Covid-19 vaccine in Sindh first?

KARACHI: With the Covid-19 vaccine expected to be made available in the country by early next year, the Sindh government has devised a mechanism for its distribution and administration across the province.

The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for Polio Eradication and Immunizations today issued a notification appointing additional deputy commissioners (ADC-1), who are already focal persons of polio eradication, as focal persons for administration of COVID-19 vaccine as and when introduced.

The ADCs have been assigned a number of tasks to accomplish in coordination with district health officers (DHOs) and medical superintendents of Tertiary Hospitals/ DHQs.

They are required to:

• Nominate a focal person at each hospital/health facility to administer Covid-19 vaccine with an intimation to the EOC coordinator.
• Health facilitates designated for vaccine administration must be duly equipped with a computer, an android phone, a printer, and an internet facility.
• Private hospitals with a proper vaccination storage system may be identified for the vaccination purpose and a focal person at each hospital may also be nominated with an intimation to the EOC coordinator.
• Earmark a space for vaccination/Adult Vaccination Counter (AVC) at each health facility i.e. DHQ Hospital/Tertiary Hospital.
• Notify nurses/skilled vaccination persons who would be administering COVID-19 vaccine with AEFI management.
• Identify and enlist healthcare workers (staff working in ICU, HDU, BRTs, etc) to be vaccinated in the first phase in coordination with the Director General Health Services Sindh.
• Ensure training of the manpower about vaccination protocols/SOPs, AEFI management, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and use of recording and reporting tools on prescribed formats (Entry on dashboard regarding vaccinated person i.e. name, age, CNIC and type of vaccine etc).
• Ensure compliance of all SOPs.

They will have to esnure vaccination in phases and as per the following priority list:

• Phase 01: Frontline healthcare workers (staff working in ICU, HDU, Isolation Wards, RRTs and Hospital Emergencies).
• Phase 02: 60-plus years old/senior citizens
• Phase 03: People with co-morbidities (to be confirmed from previous investigation and prescriptions).
• Phase: 04 general population